The Morris Police Department's new fingerprinting system is saving officers on time and stress.
Through a matching grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, Morris police received about $20,000 to help them purchase the LiveScan system. The entire system cost about $38,000.
LiveScan is an inkless computerized system that takes digitized images of fingerprints and also saves the demographic data in a digital format. Having it all electronically makes it easily transmitted to Illinois State Police for processing.
The state is pushing for departments to make obtaining the new system a priority since it cuts down on the input work of both the local departments and the state's, Morris Chief Brent Dite said.
Fingerprints are taken for all felony, misdemeanor and warrant arrests, along with some offenses in the Illinois Vehicle Code, Dite said.
Fingerprints are used to establish a criminal history. If someone already has a criminal history, future charges are attached to the history once fingerprints are taken and they are found to already be in the system.
"Whenever we get new technology, it takes some getting used to ... Once we get it down, I think it's going go pretty quick," Patrolman Eric Washburn said.
Before the computerized system, fingerprints took six to eight weeks to be processed by the state, Dite said. With the new system, once the fingerprints are done, they are submitted in seconds. And, if the alleged criminal has a record or is wanted, police can be informed in minutes.
"With the old process, we took fingerprints (with ink) on a card, then the card went to the records people who completed the personal and arrest information. It was then sent to the Bureau of Identification," he said.
At the bureau, employees determined if the fingerprints were even acceptable to be put into the state system. Sometimes after that six to eight week process, the fingerprints came back as unusable, said Kim Bezely, technology and records coordinator for Morris police and the person who wrote for the grant.
By the time police would be informed the fingerprints were not readable, police no longer have the alleged criminal in custody and it was too late for new prints.
In addition to the old system being faulty, it also was time consuming. Fingerprinting had to be done multiple times in order for the Morris police department and the state to receive a set of prints, and full palm prints had to be taken for felony charges.
"For a felony arrest, we took five sets of prints," Bezely said.
Morris police has not used a full-ink system in about eight years. Before switching to the computerized system earlier this month, another system was used. Fingerprints would be taken with a red substance that turned black when put on paper.
This system caused less errors than the full-ink system, but ink still had to be used with palm prints.
"When people are in custody, some just aren't cooperative people and you end up with ink all over," Dite said.
The computerized system is cleaner and easier to use, even with an uncooperative person. If a print is scanned that is unreadable, the computer tells the officer instantly, and they can redo the print.
In a case where someone tries to give a false identity, once they're fingerprinted, an officer knows within 15 minutes if the person is lying because the computer system searches their prints, Bezely said.
"We have their record and then we know who they really are," she said.
The system also has the capability of recognition. So if the person being processed has personal information in the system from a speeding ticket or filing a report, their information comes up.
At the end of the processing, the department receives a printout of criminal history within an hour.
All of Morris' full-time officers have been trained on the new system and are utilizing it. Part-time officers are still being trained.
"It's a learning curve for everybody, but once we understand it, it'll be streamlined," Sgt. John Severson said.
Copyright 2011 - Morris Daily Herald, Ill.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
