HHPD Gets

"Livescan" System

The Hasbrouck Heights Police Department has acquired an automatic "Livescan" fingerprint system that is online all the time. The main console is located in the Police Department. A portable kit allows the Department to go to schools to conduct the child safety ID program. Both the console and mobile unit cost $25,000. $20,000 came from confiscated drug funds and $5,000 was donated by an anonymous Hasbrouck Heights resident.

Inked Fingerprints

A known print is the intentional recording of the friction ridges, usually with black printer’s ink rolled across a contrasting white background, typically a standard white fingerprint card. With traditional ink fingerprinting, the Department had to create three fingerprint cards: Hasbrouck Heights Police Department, NJ State Police and FBI. Inked cards sent to the NJ State Police and FBI could take 4-6 weeks for processing. If the fingerprints were unacceptable, the person had to be re-fingerprinted.

Digital Fingerprints

Friction ridges can also be recorded digitally using a technique called livescan. Livescan refers to the process of capturing fingerprints directly into a digitized format as opposed to traditional ink and paper methods. Fingers from a hand are first electronically scanned at 1,000 dpi, followed by a scan of each finger. Each scan verifies the quality of the fingerprint image immediately, allowing for a rescan if necessary.

Electronic fingerprinting established standardized data elements for the booking transaction that facilitates the sharing of information between participating agencies and supports the FBI’s goal to move to electronic fingerprint submissions.

Benefits

"Livescan systems allow the department to produce consistent high quality fingerprint images, thereby reducing rejection rates from the FBI, saving time and money in processing and in other related administrative costs," stated Police Chief Michael Colaneri.

The manual booking process often required the booking officer to take anywhere from 3 to 10 sets of fingerprints while the livescan fingerprint device only requires a single set of fingerprints that can print out any number of copies for record purposes.

Digital prints taken from a suspect can be processed and checked in a matter of hours instead of taking several days or weeks. This reduces the chance of a police department prematurely releasing a dangerous criminal.

Livescan is integrated with the Hasbrouck Heights Police Department Records Bureau and about half of the police departments in Bergen County that have digital fingerprinting machines. Livescan technology also integrates with multiple federal and state databases.

The electronic submission of fingerprints to the FBI reduces the identification response time from several weeks to less than two hours.

This process virtually eliminates the rejection of fingerprints by the FBI because of poor quality that is associated with inked/paper fingerprint cards. ###

Hasbrouck Heights Police Department un-Official web-site