ig
tech fingerp inting s
er' concern
,
•
I
I •
By A. Da _ AFIS system WI instituted
CIIpiIal News Service three years ago.
LAt:'�I(NG - A burglar Kipp said the fingerprinting
I creeps wo a house, eats the -sm would not work miracles
good china and belts the oc- h ever.·If there are n�
, cupants over the he d with sus the fingerprint is use-
. ,. . less (for the moment)," he Said.
�ithin minutes the Michigan Police would be able to lift
. �t,ate Police arri� on the scene, "new" prints found at the crime
lift the fingerprints off the ,- scene and keep them 0 file for
sault weapon, and at the punch future reference if detectives
of several buttons they are able were unable to �tch them with
to scan a new computer system a uspect or fingerprints already
to come up with a list of possible on file. .
uspe�ts... Existing crime could be
The new s�tem IS �ed the �lyed because many criminals
Automated Fingerprint Iden- are repeat offenders Kipp said.
tification System (AFIS), and if The IS-year-old' who stole
state police. officials have their . the car" may be the IS-year-old
way the futuristic system will be that commit the murder" he
in-� in early 1989. id, '
"It's exciting, it's going to be Because of the many crimes
, great," said state Police Director committed by juveniles, the
Rich T. Davis. . rights of'.underage crime of-
navis lauded the S18 million fenders has become an impor-
AFIS project as "the best thing tant issue, Kipp said.
to happen to law enforcement Currently, juvenile of-
since bringing the two-way radio fenders, suhl1 as those brought in '
on." . for shoplifting, are
Implementation of high- 'fingerprinted and then their
tech fingerprinting scanning sys- files are deleted from the
tern would speed the process up records. By not erasing the
and revolutionize crime inves- print of some juvenile of­
tigation, said Jim Kipp, project fenders, police may be ble to
coordinator at the State Police cut down on some repeat of-
data informatio center. . fenders, Kipp said.
"In today's environment it "A lot depends on the offense
would take \IS 72 years to find a I -and on age," Kip}! said.
(matchtoa �erprint!�sys- "Everything is if, if, if, if, if. The
tem can do It in a maxunum of stats show that there'is real value
four hour ,It Kipp said. in keeping them. the juvenile
, Davis points put the use of a fingerprinlc;.)"' .
similar system in San Francisco Kipp said that one of their
where law enforcement officials major concerns is to obtain the
were able to solve a seven-year- fingerprints without violating
old murder c e, after their anyone's rights so that the prints
caD be used as evidence,
-We would hate to make- the
arrest, and go through the
process and then have the prints
be thrown out of court for being
obtained illegally," Kipp said.
Still, navis contends that not
all criminals are repeat of­
fenders, which means the AFlS
system would not be a "catch-all"
for all crimes.
"The 'John Norman Collinses
Report says
education
Improvement -
IIbypa edll
urban chool I
NEW YORK, N.Y - The
prestigious Carneigie Founda­
tion last week issued a report
charging that the education im­
provement movement of the last '
five years has "bypassed'urban
schools.
This was viewed as I a
reference in large part to
predominantly Black inner city
public schools.
Among the report's recom­
mendations were calls for
smaller urban schools and
programs to make teachers and
principals more esponsible fo
the success of their students.
The report is entitled "An Im­
periled Generation: Saving
Urban Schools: and it urges a
nationa1 "crusade on behalf or
urban education."
of the world do not have big
criminal records," Davis said I
referring to the convicted I
murderers, who are often foundl
to be first-time offenders.
State police officials said
that, at this point, the system is
scheduled to be used for crime­
solving exclusively. Any
proposals to expand the AFlS
, system's use would have to be
app oved by the Legislature.
"We're doing thi to putl
people in j�" Kipp said .. He
added that private businesses
,may institute a fingerprinting
procedure for identification
purposes, as dries the U nited
States military.
Department store would
have an easier time identifying
people who write cheeks, Kipp
said. But a fine line is drawn be­
tween legally recording a
fingerprint and violating rights.
"If you could put aside all the II
Big Brother questions, it would
be a phenomenal concept," he
added.
While the concept of
fingerprinting school-aged
children has been suggested as a
means of protecting against a
child's being kidnapped, no plan
as been devised to fingerprint
anyone who has not been ar­
-ested for a crime.
I don't know that I'd ever
support fingerprint ing
everybody Davis said. "Doing
that woul move us closer and
closer to ing a police state."
Davis . d he would support
rlDgerprin ing youngsters and
turning 0 r the prints to their
parents as opposed to keeping
3
"
ollce ant
by 1989
o
them on file with the state
police.