Fingerprint technology advances at county jail

In the bowels of the Cape Girardeau County jail's basement and just past a set of security doors rests one of law enforcement's latest high-tech gadgets.

A red glow emits from a glass plate housed atop a rectangular casing. Above the glass plate is a large monitor.

This device is called a live-scan fingerprinting unit. It's the latest in the fingerprinting evolution, part of a system that will one day all but eliminate ink from the fingerprinting process.

The county jail is the first Southeast Missouri law enforcement agency to get such a device. It costs roughly $46,000 and was paid for with a Homeland Security grant.

The live-scan unit makes identification quicker, officials say. It has automatic controls that immediately indicate whether a print is too smudged to be useful.

"The machine is pretty sophisticated," said jail administrator J.P. Mulcahy.

The prints are immediately transmitted to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which then can immediately run the prints through a state fingerprint database and send them to the FBI. Identification can be made in most cases within a couple of hours. Before, it could take 24 to 72 hours, Mulcahy said.

Mulcahy said the machine will be handy when suspects try to say they're somebody else. He said suspects who are caught in traffic violations often give the name of a sibling to avoid violating a probation, and sometimes those innocent siblings are caught in the middle and falsely arrested.

Highway patrol spokesman Lt. Tim Hull agreed that the technology speeds up the process of background checks.

"We deal with individuals who are applying for positions in schools like teachers and bus drivers," he said. "This is a lot more efficient."

Hull said the system eliminates virtually all fingerprinting mistakes, which otherwise would have been sent back in the mail.

The patrol headquarters in Jefferson City has had a live-scan system for a few years. Cities such as Kansas City, St. Louis and large counties like St. Charles County have bought the same equipment over the last couple of years.

"It's going to be budget-driven," Hull said. "Eventually, with the demand, I think we'll see that everybody's leaning in that direction."

bmiller@semissourian.com

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