Police get new fingerprint technology

nashobapublishing.com
By Luke Steere, lsteere@nashobapub.com
Posted: 12/23/2011 07:32:33 AM EST

PEPPERELL -- On its first scan, the Police Department's new fingerprint scanner got a hit out of New York City.

An arrested woman brought in on a local warrant had been previously arrested on possession of heroin, the case was still open. Pepperell's new CrossMatch ID 500 provided this information within four minutes, Sgt. Alan Lessieur says, information that was never available before.

"These were things we were not clued into before," he said. "Now we know our bail if an arrestee will actually show up for a court date."

Prior to the machine, arrestees had their fingers dipped in ink and then pressed to cards that were then mailed out to be added to databases. Police could not confirm identities or view prior criminal records in the databases immediately.

But now, the system checks against the state police and FBI files, records on illegal immigrants and other criminal justice databases are linked into the system too.

Above the scanner, which sits at waist level, is a computer connected to the device. The tower is housed in a cabinet below. When a subject needs to be fingerprinted, an officer opens up a corresponding program proceeds to "slap" or "roll" prints from each finger into the system.

A "slap" is a simple press, but a 'roll' determines data points on all sides of a given finger. The computer does not proceed to the next print until it gets a good sample.

"Having to this with ink was tedious, sometimes we'd have to redo the whole card if the last print smudged and other times we would mail out a card that came back as unusable because it was to smudged," Lessieur said. "If people were brought in for OUIs, it was particularly difficult to hold them steady and get them to ink the card."

It is helpful, but why hasn't it taken so long to implement?

First off, its $30,000 price tag is cost prohibitive. Pepperell's was free, however, because Lessieur queued into a program through the Massachusetts State Police Fingerprint ID unit.

As new machines are moved into departments, the old ones are sent out those still using card-and-ink. This CrossMatch ID 500 came from Concord, who upgraded to a newer model. More advanced models do store photo identifications and there are even more advanced face-scanning models.

Because of Pepperell's population, it is low on the list for receiving new equipment. New breathalyzers are also being distributed, but Lessieur says it may be some time before they get one.

Surrounding towns are not much different, but Pepperell is sharing its new fingerprint scanner with Townsend, Groton and Dunstable.

Lessieur added that it is very convenient for routine prints and background checks for adoptions, firearms and gaming licenses. Training for all Pepperell officers and command staff was completed on Nov. 30.

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