Pulled over in Kansas? Get ready to show your license, registration — and fingerprints

Kansas City Star ^ | 3/22/06 | BENITA Y. WILLIAMS

[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.

[af_vet_rr]

Most of you disagree with this tactic, but I think it has value. Think of all the cold cases that could be solved and all the wanted scum walking around that can't reasonably be picked up otherwise.

Better yet, why don't we just setup check points all over the place, and force everybody to go through them and have the police positively ID every person, run their records against all of the fed databases, etc.

If you can force 100% of the population through such checkpoints, we could close all kinds of cold cases!

[af_vet_rr]

I would like to point out that threads such as this and the ones about putting more police cameras, license plate tracking, etc., they will generally top out at well under 200 posts.

Post a thread about Tom Cruise saying something negative about President Bush and you could probably hit the 500 post mark in half a day.

Shows the priorities of "Conservatives" these days.

[MineralMan]

"Post a thread about Tom Cruise saying something negative about President Bush and you could probably hit the 500 post mark in half a day.
"

Or how about a public breast-feeding thread? Those always pile up the posts.

[rattrap]

Q: How can we limit what little tourism our state has?

A: This.

[MineralMan]

I can't imagine how anyone could miss these riveting tourist attractions in Kansas:


1950s All-Electric House Shawnee Step over the threshold of this ranch-style, suburban home and it's 1953 all ove...

Wye Switch Columbus A piece of railroad history. The only one of its kind, the 3 wye switch, used t...

D Acres, Inc. Louisburg Tour a production emu farm showing what it takes to raise emu and products from ...

4-County Tour Self-Guided Yates Center 4-county tour of Wilson, Woodson, Coffey, and Allen Counties. Indian Territory i...

4-State Lookout White Cloud On a clear day see parts of 4 states. Lookout and see Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska...

40th Parallel, 6th Principal Meridian Marker Mahaska National Historic Site marking survey point for Kansas, Nebraska, portions of Wy...

54 Hi-Way Drive-In Theatre Iola Go back in time and visit the nostalgic 1950s Drive-In. Double features every we...

[B4Ranch]

>>Prints scanned in the field will not be stored.<<


Bovine manure!

[MplsSteve]

I agree with you.

If this system works and keeps scumbags off the street (and in jail where they belong), I have no problem with that.

My fingerprints are already on file with the SEC - so I don't care one way or the other.

[Blue Jays]

Hi MplsSteve-

Sigh...

Please see MineralMan's post #60 above. Where do you wish the slippery slope to stop? How about unannounced quarterly inspections of your home office and computer, but only by friendly and qualified SEC personnel?

Too many innocent people get pulled into the dragnet using heavy-handed methods like universal fingerprinting and license/registration/insurance roadblocks. It breeds distrust of the police and resentment towards the government. These techniques should be rejected and avoided at all times.

~ Blue Jays ~

[ElPatriota]

it is a statewide database of more than 10 million fingerprints taken from people arrested in Kansas.

Not bad for a state boasting a total population of about 2.2 million.

ROFL! Probably that is why they got smart now!...

[MplsSteve]

I don't fear the so-called "slippery slope" as much as some do here on Free Republic.

My lack of fear is not out of naivete or wishful thinking - but instead it's based on real-life thinking.

On a side note, my desk, my PC and my work are already subject to un-announced inspection by the company I work for, by external auditors and by the SEC.

[Blue Jays]

Hi MplsSteve-

"...My lack of fear is not out of naivete or wishful thinking - but instead it's based on real-life thinking..."

---

That's just it. For the vast majority of my life I had never been stopped at one of these so-called license/insurance/registration police checkpoints...because they never used to exist! Now they're all the rage among police agencies. In one example that I've shared on FR before, I was stopped twice on the same road within a few miles of each other by two separate law enforcement agencies roadblocks within an hour. I had to patiently wait on line each time for the privilege of having an officer peer in my car and review my documentation.

I'm just an innocent businessperson in the technology arena who has to visit important clients. When they need me onsite at their datacenters, it's typically urgent in nature. It cost me money and it certainly cost my clients money. These absurd barriers to free passage and commerce never existed even a decade ago, so it's not my imagination. Similar to this infernal Kansas fingerprinting scheme, I was an innocent person caught in the dragnet. Please don't think that you won't get "dinged" by one of these techniques...it's really just a matter of time.

~ Blue Jays ~

[MD_Willington_1976]

FBI & DHS already have my index finger biometric data... I've been fingerprinted both ways more time than a seasoned criminal...

[moehoward]

On the self incrimination issue. One could always refuse to comply, like many do with field sobriety tests. If you have a valid license and are pulled over for a minor infraction, what's the cop going to do? Arrest you when he already knows you are free from outstanding warrants?

Like I said, the only way this tool has any validity is with individuals with no official ID, like an Illegal Alien driving with no license.

[ReformedBeckite]

I think they're hiding.

I'm not hiding, I'm cleaning the ink off my fingers.

[darkangel82]

sigh...ping

[Delta 21]

...and to boot the liberal democrat Governor vetoed the concealed carry law the other day, as to make the LEO's jobs easier and less dangerous. Stupid B!tch. Good thing its almost election time.

[freepatriot32]

The first phase was funded with a $752,000 homeland security grant

Of course it was funded by a homeland security grant feel safer yet folks?

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[Supernatural]

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore".

Good!

[Pablo64]

"LOL. It's mutual, pal. There is no reason for me to go to Nebraska. LOL.

Aside from the really wonderful church we belong to, there's really no reason for me to be here either!LOL! Not much of a view in my part of the state (I really miss Colorado - sigh!), but hey, at least we can drive 75 on the interstate. ;-)

[vrwc0915]

bleat bleat sheep and dont cry when you no longer produce wool and you are mutton