Jail booking process goes electronic
April 22, 2004 12:17pm
Montgomery Advertiser
County officials say the system will save time when linked with a statewide network
The Montgomery County sheriff's office early next year will join a statewide electronic fingerprinting network that state troopers say will dramatically reduce the time needed to conduct a criminal history check.
"The idea is that you would have results before finishing the booking process," said Thomas Simon, an assistant attorney general.
Under current system, when a person is fingerprinted for booking into the Montgomery County Detention Facility, copies of the prints are mailed to the state troopers and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Those two agencies then check a person's criminal history for outstanding warrants. A person arrested could post bond before Montgomery County authorities ever know about an outstanding warrant.
"You don't want to have to go back and find them after you've already processed them once," Simon said.
Ronald McCoy, identification officer for the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, said the county has used the electronic fingerprinting for almost three years. He said the system without the statewide network is just a baby step ahead of the archaic paper-and-ink system, which moves at the speed of regular mail.
"But with the new system, if a person is already in the system, whether state or federal, then they will show up in about an hour," McCoy said.
He said greater savings will be realized when the county links up to the statewide network, eliminating the need for mailing off fingerprints.
"We have an extremely inefficient system now," Simon said. "But the new system will automate the entire process and would then forward information straight to the state and federal agencies. It would make everything much more efficient."
Once the state troopers connect the network with about 40 municipal and county law enforcement agencies in January, fingerprints could be sent electronically throughout Alabama.
Alabama has about 450 municipal and county law enforcement agencies.
"And we want to integrate them all," Simon said. "The university police, municipal and even security police so they can all exchange data. It's just a matter of being able to transmit."
Earlier this week, the Montgomery County commissioners approved an agreement to keep Digital Biometrics Inc :-). as the maintenance provider for the two electronic fingerprint machines.
The county will pay the company $9,102 for 24-hours, seven-day a week service.
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