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Grant Helps Washington County, N.Y., Update Fingerprinting Technology

The Washington County Sheriff's Office found out this week that it will be getting state funding to purchase new Live Scan equipment, which will allow the agency to equip its substation in Salem and buy newer equipment for its main station in Fort Edward.

(TNS) -- It has gotten a lot more difficult for criminals to lie about their identity thanks to the advent of "Live Scan" computerized fingerprint technology.

Years ago it would take weeks for fingerprint comparisons to be made in a state database. But in recent years, many police agencies across the country have gotten computerized scanners that can take a person's print and almost instantly compare it to those in the database.

The result is people who give false names are typically caught in minutes, before they are arraigned or released on the underlying charge.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office found out this week that it will be getting state funding to purchase new Live Scan equipment, which will allow the agency to equip its substation in Salem and buy newer equipment for its main station in Fort Edward.

It will receive $19,945, part of more than $1 million given to police agencies across the state for Live Scan technology over the past few months. and was the only local police agency named in the most recent rounds of state grants.

Sheriff Jeff Murphy said the equipment has dramatically approved the process for fingerprinting and taking mugshots, and led to quick determinations as to whether someone is lying about who they are. That is particularly important for determining if someone is wanted on a warrant elsewhere.

"It's an excellent tool for identification. You instantly know who you are dealing with," he said.

"Before it would take weeks before a print was processed and you knew who it was," Hudson Falls Police Chief Randy Diamond said. "Now they do it in minutes."

Without a terminal in the Route 22 station in Salem, sheriff's officers have had to drive some suspects to Fort Edward to put their prints through Live Scan if there is concern about veracity of their personal information.

The computerized process also hastens the fingerprinting process for non-criminal matters such as pistol permit applications and school bus driver background checks, Murphy added.

In Washington County, the Sheriff's Office, State Police, Hudson Falls Police, Granville Police and Cambridge-Greenwich Police are the only agencies with Live Scan technology in their stations. In Warren County, the Sheriff's Office, State Police and Glens Falls Police have the technology.

"We have had a number of cases where people lie and sign the (print) cards and it winds up being a felony forgery charge," Glens Falls Police Detective Lt. Peter Casertino said.

The system also provides uniform backgrounds for mugshot pictures, so that there are no variations between agencies that can affect the picture, Diamond said.

Murphy said the Sheriff's Office has set up its system so other agencies in the county can use it, including Whitehall Police, Fort Edward Police and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

©2016 The Post Star (Glens Falls, N.Y. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.