State Computer Will Speed Fingerprint Identification

Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp announced Wednesday a new computerized fingerprint identification system that he said will revolutionize the way California law enforcement agencies identify criminals and solve crimes.

The California Identification System, with a planned data base of 5 million fingerprints of known criminals, will allow officials to identify individuals in minutes by comparing prints stored in the computer against those of a suspect, a fraction of the time that the current manual system requires.

The $22.5-million conversion process, approved last month by the Department of General Services, is scheduled to begin in March at the Department of Justice’s division of law enforcement headquarters in Sacramento. The system is expected to be operative in July.

Van de Kamp and department officials called the state-of-the-art technology the most effective crime-fighting tool now available. When fully implemented in four years, they said it will be the largest and most sophisticated fingerprint identification system in the world. With six times the number of prints stored, officials expect to identify 7,250 more criminals per year, to clear 22,500 cases and to save $2 million annually.

“Instead of the 24 hours it now takes our fingerprint technicians to identify prints through a manual search, we’ll be able to process prints in as little as two to four hours,” Van de Kamp said. “Instead of the eight to 15 days it now takes to complete an entire print and record check, including getting a criminal history record back to local law enforcement, we will be able to do all of that by computer in just two to 48 hours.”

Implementation of this system is part of the Department of Justice’s six-year, $1.5-million program approved by the Legislature in the 1983-84 budget to fully automate name and fingerprint identification files in a statewide system. Currently, the department’s limited system covers only 52 of the state’s 58 counties. Among those currently excluded are Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. All counties will be included in the new system.

Van de Kamp was joined at the press conference by Sen. John F. Foran (D-San Francisco), who said he has introduced legislation that would provide $14.5 million in state funds to local governments for the purchase of remote-access computer terminals that would give local law enforcement officials throughout the state immediate and direct access to the new system’s fingerprint files.