GA - Police armed with fingerprint scanners

Original Article

You can always refuse to do this, just like with breathalyzers.

01/31/2012

By Kevin Rowson

MARIETTA - Criminals are going to have a harder time hiding their identity from the police. Marietta Police officers will be armed with the latest in crime fighting technology that will help them stop crime from happening.

Many times suspects are turned loose because police aren't aware of their past record or criminal history. "A lot of times criminals don't carry identification on them and a lot of the criminals will give us false information in an attempt to elude us to hide who they really are," said Marietta Officer David Baldwin.

But that won't happen anymore because officers will be carrying a Mobile Fingerprint Scanner that instantly scans someone's fingerprint and runs it through state and FBI databases. It will tell an officer if his or her suspicions are worthy. "It will find out if they've ever been arrested," said Officer Baldwin. "It'll find out if they actually have current warrants for their arrest, if they're on current probation or parole, or even if they're a sex offender."

Officer Baldwin said the scanner will only be used when an officer suspects a crime was being committed (yeah, right) or was about to be committed. "We have to have reasonable suspicion," he said. "We have to have suspicion that they're actually doing something illegal."

Officer Baldwin said it will stop many criminals from eluding police. "There have been people that have gotten away because we've had no other reasonable grounds to hold them," he said. "They've walked away with warrants for their arrest and the officer wasn't able to know that at the time."

Marietta has six of the devices that cost $3,200 each. They aren't costing Marietta taxpayers a cent (Yeah, right) because they are paid for with a Homeland Security grant.