Sheriff’s Booking Setup To Go Digital
Wayne County, Mich., Sheriff Warren Evans has initiated a plan that employs a $152,000 federal grant to replace the Wayne County Jail’s paper files with a digital system. Evans claims the new booking system will form the basis for a national criminal database. Instead of traveling to the jail to look at mug shots and fingerprints, detectives from local police departments will be able to obtain inmates’ files on the Internet.
In addition, local departments will be able to perform digital police lineups or choose inmates out of the jail system for live lineups.
Evans states that the new system will offer more dependable identification of inmates and lower the chance of mistakes.
The new system will include wristbands that contain photos and bar codes printed on them and are nearly impossible to remove without being destroyed. Evans has also asked for membership in CLEMIS, which has 44 dispatch systems that are linked to a centralized records management system and connects 1,500 mobile data computers in police cars that officers employ for field-based reporting and record checks.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Detroit News (03/05/04) P. 3D; Bouffard, Karen .