Sheriff Wayne Youell announced that the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority approved the Mason County Sheriff’s Office’s application and has awarded an over $20,000 grant to Mason County to fund 75% of the cost for Livescan, an electronic fingerprinting system.  

The Mason County Sheriff’s Office fingerprints
approximately 900 arrestees a year and provides
a fingerprinting service to our county’s schools,
hospital, daycare facilities, churches, and fire
departments.

Unlike the ink fingerprinting method, Livescan
uses no ink and an individual only needs to be
fingerprinted once.  Livescan stores the prints
and allows the user to produce multiple copies
of an individual’s fingerprint card at any time.  Livescan immediately notifies the user whether the scanned prints are good quality. 

After the prints are scanned and an acceptable level of quality is achieved, they are electronically transmitted to the Illinois State Police’s Bureau of Identification for instant comparison and classification.  The fingerprinted individual’s identification is made within minutes, allowing for arrestees to be positively identified while they are still in custody. 

“Using the inked fingerprint method, our office was required to mail the inked prints to the Bureau of Identification,” said Youell.  “By mail, it would take anywhere between two weeks to a month to receive a response not only as to whether the submitted prints were clear enough to be classified, but also if the arrestee had used someone else’s name and personal information during the booking.  Among the benefits Livescan offers, it is a great tool in the prevention of identity theft.” 
 
Livescan also instantly compares the transmitted prints with the unidentifiable suspect fingerprints that were lifted at crime scenes, submitted by law enforcement agencies to the Illinois State Police, and entered into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (A.F.I.S.) database.

“With grant opportunities increasingly becoming more uncommon, Mason County is very fortunate to have received the funding for Livescan.  “A great thanks goes to the Mason County Board and Mason County Clerk William Blessman for being instrumental in helping make the goal of Livescan a reality in Mason County,” said Youell.
Mason County Sheriff's Office:  Livescan Grant