Posted on 03/22/2006 11:08:37 AM PST by Rebelbase
If you are stopped by police in Kansas, don’t be surprised if the officer pulls out a little black box and takes your fingerprints.
The gadget allows officers to identify people by fingerprints without hauling them to the police station.
Over the next year the Kansas Bureau of Investigation will test 60 of the devices with law enforcement agencies around the state. State officials said similar tests are being planned for New York, Milwaukee and Hawaii.
“This is definitely new,” said Gary Page, Overland Park Police Department crime lab. “It’s been talked about, but as far as I know they are not in use anywhere in the metro.”
The tests in Kansas are part of a bigger $3.6 million upgrade to the KBI’s statewide fingerprint database, unveiled Tuesday by the KBI and Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline.
■ The system:
Called the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System, it is a statewide database of more than 10 million fingerprints taken from people arrested in Kansas. The Missouri Highway Patrol maintains a similar database. Both systems link to the FBI fingerprint database.
■ How it works:
In Kansas, 54 law enforcement agencies have traded the ink-and-paper fingerprinting method for biometric imaging, which electronically scans a digital image of the print. Sixty Missouri agencies use biometric scanning. Police also can scan the fingers of corpses and people they arrest to match them against prints in the system. Results are obtained in seconds instead of hours. The inked cards still used by some smaller departments are also scanned into the statewide systems.
■ Why upgrade?
Kansas could no longer locate replacement parts or anyone to service the old system, which was launched in 1990 and upgraded in 1998. The first phase was funded with a $752,000 homeland security grant. The KBI is applying for similar grants to pay the balance. All upgrades should be completed by January 2007.
■ The portable devices:
Police place a person’s two index fingers on a screen. Wireless technology sends the image to the database for comparison. Prints scanned in the field will not be stored.
LOL, yeah, I really miss North Carolina. Seems everyone has somewhere else they'd rather be. *sigh* Such is life.
And why would any cop want to spend extra time grabbing a couple of fingerprints? Can't they check the LICENSE against a database of criminal records right there in the squad car? If it's a face license (one rationale for getting fingerprints), the lack of a DMV record will knock him out right there!
They'll be duly erased, after the weekly backups, of course.
Something like this would probably get a cooler reception on DU than FR, sad to say.
Sounds like this top-notch surveillance ought to be feasible on our southern border if it can be implimented in KS.
Freepmail me. I'll give you the address to which YOU are going to send the cleaning service to take care of my monitor. ROFL!!!!!
Boy, I long for the old days where they hauled your a$$ down to the precinct and took half a day to figure out who you were.
LOL. A craftsman is always gratified to hear his work praised.
But ... but ... the Holiday Inn could run your prints against the Holiday Inn Worldwide Fingerprint Database (linked to the Marriott AND Motel 6 databases, as you know) and find out that you once refused to pay the $23.50 for the macadamia nuts from the minibar and refuse to ever allow you back.
Aren't you even the slightest bit concerned about this?
Not bad for a state boasting a total population of about 2.2 million.
Perhaps that's 2.2 million Americans, and 7.8 illegals...
Not really - the fact that we require a license to drive, and the implication that there is a method for positive identification moots the whole point. If they try to implant something in me for the purpose of controlling me wherever I am, or insist on identification to buy food and other essentials, then I will become very worried and fight it with everything I have.
Yes, seems so doesn't it.
Agreed
Think about job applications -- one of the questions they always ask is, "Have you been arrested, fingerprinted, et al?" How do you answer if you've undergone this process?
I'd think this might fall under fourth amendment issues...
Keep licking that boot.
Well, they are both here now, and just as we predicted, they think it's a fabulous idea.
I agree. Assuming The Constitution means anything anymore. Even with a 'Conservative' in the White House it continues to be ripped to shreds.
>>It seems like a lot more money and effort is put into
>>identifying and successfully prosecuting routine traffic
>>violations then crimes involving identity theft and
>>credit card fraud.
Follow the money, traffic citations have become an ever larger piece of city and state budgets, I can see it now…
Officer: Chief, I need a raise.
Chief: You don’t bring in enough revenue to get a raise.
Officer: My evaluations are perfect scores, and Jones…
Chief: Jones brings in an average of $20,000 a month in citations.
Chief: You go out there and raise your average to $15,000 for three months, and I’ll see what I can do.
There’s an old adage in business, you get what you measure, so measure what you want to get.
No, I don’t think conversations like this take place, it’s more subtle than that (I hope anyway).
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