In a sign of law enforcement authorities’ growing enthusiasm for fingerprint biometrics, agencies from 27 New York counties applied for state grants to purchase new fingerprint scanning devices. In Western New York alone, grants totaling almost $80,000 were awarded to police agencies from just five counties.
According to The Buffalo News, the state grants are intended for agencies seeking “to replace a unit that either malfunctioned or had become obsolete.” It’s unclear what the status of the equipment in each applying county was, but at this point an argument could be made that all traditional, non-digital fingerprinting technology is becoming obsolete. Increasing number of police authorities have sought to acquire such technology as costs have come down and technological sophistication has improved.
Lower-level government bodies seem to be increasingly interested in using state and federal grants to acquire this kind of technology, with the city of Baltimore having looked into using $30,000 in federal grants to purchase mobile fingerprint scanners last month, to take one example. Of course, local and regional law enforcement agencies in the US are also showing interest in fingerprint biometric technology even when such grants aren’t available. Just last month, for example, Georgia’s Lincoln County paid $10,000 to sign on for a state-run fingerprint biometrics service.
Source: The Buffalo News
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October 6, 2015 – by Alex Perala
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