March 2, 2006
Mason County
Jail Receives Livescan
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 or not 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.