Mesa police testing high-tech fingerprint scanners

While that is perfectly legal the police always assume I am a criminal because I refuse to tell them my name. The police always threaten me with all kinds of evil things.

The cops then illegally search me looking for my identification. But their illegal search never finds anything because I don't carry any ID.

Usually after being falsely arrested for an hour or so the police release me and tell me I am a b*tthole for thinking I have Constitutional rights.

I suspect when I am stopped by the Mesa police after they illegally search me looking for ID and don't find it, I am sure they will forcefully take my fingerprints from me to attempt to verify my id.

I should note there are no Supreme Court cases requiring you to give the police identification or ID. The only case I know of is Hiibel v. Nevada or Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada.

In that case the US Supreme Court said that the police can require that you VERBALLY tell them your name only if 1) they have "Reasonable Suspicion" to detain you and 2) your state has a law requiring you to identify your self. In those cases you have to VERBALLY tell the police your name, but you are not required to give them any ID.

Arizona has such a law and when it was first passed it was a word for word copy of the Nevada law.

Source

Mesa police testing high-tech fingerprint scanners, glasses-mounted cameras

Posted: Friday, August 10, 2012 10:01 am

By Garin Groff, Tribune

If Mesa police suspect you’re up to no good and want to identify you quickly on the street, it turns out they’d like you to just give them the finger.

OK, not THAT finger. Make it a couple of other digits.

Some officers are now requesting suspects let police scan both index fingers with a new mobile phone-sized device that can identify people in seconds without making a time-consuming trip to a fingerprint scanner at the downtown jail.

The wireless device is one of two high-tech instruments police are deploying this summer, along with 50 glasses-mounted cameras that record every interaction officers have with suspects.

The fingerprint scanners were tested in July at DUI checkpoints and worked without problem, said Bill Kalaf, Mesa’s executive director of intelligence-led policing.

Police with the device hold it in front of a suspect, who presses an index finger on a screen until the gadget buzzes to confirm a successful scan. The suspect repeats the process with the other finger.

“It can’t get much simpler,” Kalaf said. “All you do is push a button and it tells you what to do.”

The information is sent wirelessly to The Arizona Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which has more than 2 million prints. The device quickly responds whether there is a match or not.

If the print matches, the device’s screen will display the person’s name, date of birth, picture and whether the database includes DNA.

Results usually come back in two minutes or less, but sometimes within 30 seconds.

“Training is all of about 10 to 15 seconds,” Kalaf said. “Officers love it because it’s so simple to use.”

Kalaf said the quick results help police confirm identities much easier when people don’t have identification with them, lie to officers or have fraudulent documents. [As I said before per Hiibel v. Nevada you are not required to give ID to the police and, the police can't legally arrest you for refusing. But sadly a crooked cop will quickly break the law and violate your Constitutional rights if he thinks you are a criminal]

Police hope the mobile scanner can help police work more efficiently because the only other option to get a fingerprint is to drive a suspect to the downtown jail. Kalaf said the device should be welcome to people who can be cleared on the street, because they won’t have to have police take them downtown for fingerprinting. [As I said before per Hiibel v. Nevada you are not required to give ID to the police and, the police can't legally arrest you for refusing. But sadly a crooked cop will quickly break the law and violate your Constitutional rights if he thinks you are a criminal]

Mesa is testing six devices now with patrol officers. If Mesa is pleased after a roughly six-month test, it will consider arming more of its nearly 300 patrol officers with them. The scanners are on loan from Morpho, a manufacturer of identification and security products. The scanners cost $500 to $1,000 each.

Police are also continuing to test cameras mounted on officers by equipping 50 police with cameras as soon as September. Mesa has tested an earlier generation of the cameras but wants to keep evaluating their potential to help police record evidence at a scene and to help document officer behavior when the public files a complaint.

The cameras are built by Scottsdale-based Taser International, a major supplier of stun guns. Police will seek volunteers to wear the cameras for a year-long test.

The cameras record all the time and download information to a small hard drive that officers can’t erase. That allows police supervisors to see an entire interaction and not just a provocative segment that’s taken out of context, police Chief Frank Milstead said.

Milstead said that since so many things are now filmed by smart phones, police should be able to have their own recording. The cameras should reduce police abuse claims that are false, because Milstead said people who wage misconduct allegations typically drop the matter when they learn an interaction has been recorded.

“It’s hard to argue with something that’s on tape,” he said.

Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com

Source

Device helps Phoenix-area police check fingerprints faster

Portable device latest example of technological advancements revolutionizing police work

by Jim Walsh - Aug. 31, 2012 10:18 PM

The Republic | azcentral.com

The driver of a Ford Mustang was pinned in his car in west Phoenix, the victim of a fatal collision with a driver police suspect was impaired.

A Phoenix police sergeant used the latest technological advancement in law enforcement, a MorphoIDent, which is about the size of an iPhone, to scan the index finger on both of the victim's hands. The sergeant plugged the device into the computer in his patrol car. A minute or two later, the screen flashed the victim's name: Ronald A. Lowe, 32, of Phoenix.

"We're not always dealing with criminals and dangerous people. We are dealing with victims," said Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman. "It makes us more efficient in the positive identification of the victim and moving forward to the next of kin."

The MorphoIDent saved the delay caused by traditional identification methods, which could include fingerprinting the victim and sending the prints to the records section, or having the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office identify him or her.

The device is the latest example of technological advancements that have revolutionized police work, making suspects easier to track and evidence more readily available. Police say the device makes it possible to quickly match fingerprints with those stored in a statewide databank. It does not store or capture fingerprints for other purposes.

The Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe and Glendale police departments are using the devices in a free pilot program launched by the manufacturer, MorphoTrak of Alexandria, Va., said Eve Fillon, a company spokeswoman.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety is also participating. In three months, the Peoria, Yuma and Lake Havasu City police will get the portable scanners, along with the Yuma County Sheriff's Office. Bill Lamoreaux, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Corrections, said the agency uses the device to check the identity of inmates at intake and release.

MorphoTrak, a division of Safran, a French company based in Paris, is hoping Valley agencies eventually will make the same decision as Tucson police, who ordered MorphoIDent devices after an earlier pilot program.

But efficiency and accuracy don't come cheap. Each unit has a list price of $1,717, although the actual per-unit cost depends upon the number of devices purchased, Fillon said.

Mesa police are using the device in patrol functions and as a tool in investigations of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol as part of a six-month pilot project, said Sgt. Tony Landato, a police spokesman.

He said criminals often lie to police about their identity to avoid arrest. "We live in an era when identify theft is rampant. This is a tool we can use to deal with that epidemic," Landato said.

He said the device also allows officers to detain people for as short a time as possible while police rule them out as suspects.

The device is already showing promise in Mesa, though the pilot program started July 4.

In July, a Mesa officer chased a suspect in a domestic-violence case through a supermarket and detained him.

The man refused to identify himself, but the officer used the MorphoIDent to positively identify him as a suspect in an Apache Junction homicide case and to rule him out as a suspect in the domestic-violence incident, Landato said.

"The whole idea is to get the right information to the right officer" during an incident or an investigation, said Bill Kalaf, Mesa's executive director of intelligence-led policing. "You don't want to let the bad guy go."

Another man lied about his identity to an officer at Mesa's light-rail station. The officer used the MorphoIDent to positively identify him and arrested him on suspicion of providing false information to police.

"I absolutely love it. It's another tool in our toolbox," said veteran Mesa patrol Officer Todd Reed, one of six officers using the device.

Reed said he had a case a couple of years ago in which the MorphoIDent could have averted an error. A man used his brother's identity during a traffic stop and was arrested and charged under the wrong name. Police didn't discover the error until the man who was unjustly charged reported it to clear his name, he said.

Mesa already is planning its next technological advancement through another partnership with MorphoTrak. It may begin testing a prototype version of a new product under development, the Morpho Lift, within the next few months.

The Morpho Lift would allow crime-scene technicians to record fingerprints at a crime scene, download them to laptop computers and run them through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System databank, Fillon said.

Landato said such rapid identification of fingerprints at a crime scene would allow detectives to track down suspects before they have a chance to flee.

"When you can track down people within a few hours, rather than waiting a day or two for prints to be processed, that could have a major impact," he said.

Fillon said the Mesa Police Department is the only agency in Arizona under consideration for testing of the Morpho Lift at this time.