System Puts Background Checks at Fingertips

New computer technology being installed at the Ventura County Jail will give authorities a firmer byte on some criminals.

Officials are putting the finishing touches this week on software that will link the sheriff’s electronic fingerprint system with the federal Department of Justice’s databank, making it easier and quicker to access background information on new inmates.

Within two hours, sheriff’s officials will have an identification on an inmate’s prints and know whether that person uses an alias. Authorities will also be alerted to any outstanding warrants the new inmate may have in other areas of the state.

In short, the system will make it harder for inmates to get away with giving out fake names.

“That happens a lot,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Bruce Norris. “And we have to do a certain amount of searching to find out who someone is. If we have a faster way of doing that, you won’t end up releasing someone who may have more serious crimes in their background that we didn’t even know about.”

Norris said departments in the past have released people simply because there was not an efficient way to confirm their identity or access outstanding warrants from other agencies.

The new system also will aid deputies who have the difficult task of assigning recent arrestees to a cell, said Sgt. Rick Gatling, who is overseeing the computer hookup with the Justice Department.

“If we find out, for example, someone has a prior arrest for armed robbery,” Gatling said, “we would classify him as a violent assaultive inmate. And we certainly would not want to put him in with people arrested for something like drunk driving.”

The program was spearheaded by the Department of Justice, which is picking up the cost to connect the sheriff’s computer with its own databank. Law enforcement agencies throughout the state will have the same opportunity, authorities said, with the hope that eventually most will be connected to the Department of Justice.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is among the agencies not yet connected, although it should be online sometime next year, officials said.

The Department of Justice’s effort to link law enforcement agencies with its criminal databank comes in the wake of the 1997 rape and slaying of a student near Sacramento, allegedly by a school janitor with a record of violent crime unknown to school officials.

A law enacted in January requires school districts to obtain complete fingerprinting reports on job applicants. Similar technology is being used now to run fingerprint checks on new inmates in the state’s jails.

Department officials purchased the live scan fingerprint computers more than a year ago, replacing the old ink pad and paper method.

Someone being booked today simply places his finger onto a small computer screen and a digital snapshot of the suspect’s prints is recorded. The snapshot is then automatically transferred to the Department of Justice, which will trace the prints on its own databank for a possible match.

In the past, the process could take up to 24 hours.

A similar system, used for running background checks on department applicants and potential school employees, has already been up and running in the record departments of the sheriff’s Ventura and Thousand Oaks stations since August.

Computer technicians are working out the final kinks in the new system, Gatling said. But he expects deputies should be using the system in about two weeks.