In the past, officers would have to bring suspects to a police station or jail in order to check their fingerprints against a database of arrest records and warrants. The mobile device, about the size of a laptop computer, allows officers to perform background checks wherever they are. In Minnesota, where the system is connected to a statewide database of warrants and arrest records, the city of Eagan's police chief, Kent Therkelsen, believes that there will be "a lot of identification that will take place in the field that used to take place at the jail."
The devices also get high marks for accuracy. Lieutenant Bob Hamborg of the Hennepin County police department says the mobile system has helped to accurately identify many suspects. "We have had no false identifications," he says, "and we have had real good success matching those in the database."
Civil liberties issues have been raised about the devices and how they are used, but Jenny Ruby, an officer with the Eagan police department, says that fingerprinting takes place only "when a person is already in custody or if they are a solid suspect," the same criteria used for fingerprinting a suspect in a jail. The only difference, she says, is that results are much more expedited. Therkelsen believes that improvements in fingerprinting technology are creating useful tools for police officers. "This type of biometric technology," he adds, "will be very common in the years to come."
