Department computerizes fingerprint process
By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
CRANBURY The Cranbury Police Department is joining the law enforcement community’s latest stab at cutting edge technology.
Taking fingerprints from criminal offenders will take on a whole new face as the department officially welcomes its first LiveScan Machine at the end of December.
LiveScan is an inkless system that electronically transmits fingerprints to the U.S. Department of Justice for completion of a criminal record check, according to livescanfingerprinting.com.
”We’re at the forefront,” said Cranbury Police Chief Edward Kahler. “This creates a central data base for prints. When we bring someone in and take prints through the digital finger reader that information goes to the state police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
During their booking process, Cranbury police will now be able to “instantaneously” know whether a suspect has a previous record or active warrants Chief Kahler said.
”We have to take ink prints and literally mail them to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” he said of the current system. “We wouldn’t get results back for weeks and by then the person we had in custody would have been released.”
Fingerprints taken for other reasons employment in certain occupations, for instance also are in the system, which improves law enforcement’s ability to catch suspects, Chief Kahler said.
The department covered the cost of the $25,000 system through a grant from the Middlesex County prosecutor’s office, which received the money from the federal Department of Homeland Security, Chief Kahler said.
Morphotrak, a Virginia-based identity management solutions company, will be at the Cranbury police headquarters later this month to install the system and train officers.