New scanner helps MCSD fight crime

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department’s new Livescan device, designed for biometric fingerprinting, will help the department streamline booking and licensing, according to Sheriff Neal Rohlfing (left) and corrections officer Justin Fruth. (Evan Binns photo)

Behind bars at the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, the police officers there have a new device that has already helped speed up the red tape of law enforcement paperwork.

The machine is no bigger than a smart tablet, yet combined with its accompanying equipment, it still only takes up about as much space as an ATM.

A futuristic smartpad digitally captures and records every inch of a person’s hand. That image along, with other information, is then plugged into databases from police departments and federal agencies around the country.

“The time plus what it’s saved in costs means this (machine) has essentially paid for itself,” Fruth said.

That would be true if the Livescan device had cost the department anything at all.

However, the machine, which generally costs around $65,000, was given to the MCSD as part of a grant through the state and federal governments to modernize and upgrade law enforcement agencies around the country, Monroe County Sheriff Neal Rohlfing said.

“No matter which law enforcement department in Monroe County makes the arrest, eventually everyone ends up here (at the sheriff’s department),” Rohlfing said. “Livescan just makes it easier on the officers in terms of booking.”

In addition to being able to keep tabs on an offender’s criminal background, including registered sex offenders, Rohlfing said the Livescan machine is also helpful when it comes to running background checks for concealed carry licenses and liquor licenses.

Livescan is just one of several recent changes at MCSD over the past few months. Not only does the department now have a powerful new addition to its already vast crime prevention array, the sheriff’s department also welcomed in April the addition of new deputy Kyle Waddington, and one new K-9 unit with another on the way.

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