NCJ Number
118557
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 16 Issue: 6 Dated: (June 1989) Pages: 23-24
Date Published
1989
Length
2 pages
Annotation
In Santa Barbara, Calif., the county sheriff's department has been testing an electronic point of booking system to verify inmate identities.
Abstract
Cases of misidentified and mistakenly released inmates are not uncommon. To remedy this, the sheriff's office in Santa Barbara scans live fingers electronically, creating a laser-printed, ten-print card, including rolled and plain fingerprint impressions. Specialized optical scanning and electronic processing equipment "reads" the finger and converts the image into digitized data for transmission to an automated fingerprint identification system, where an automated search is performed against current fingerprint records. This allows security staff to verify identities when inmates are moved from one controlled area to another within the facility. Additionally, employees can be held accountable, because a complete audit-trail record of access can be generated by computer, noting the identity of the individual, the time and date, and the length of stay in a specific area. This is a deterrent to unauthorized access and satisfies the requirement for positive location/inmate presence checks. Many believe that a national network for sharing fingerprint data will be developed in less than 10 years.