How do you know a person is
lying about who they say they are? What if they don’t have a driver’s license or
are wanted for a previous crime committed? Introducing the latest tool the
Canton Police Department has implemented, the Data Works Plus Rapid-ID. The
Canton Police Department is now among the growing number of Georgia agencies
utilizing fingerprint matching technology to aid in criminal identification.
Rapid-ID technology will use suspect fingerprints to search local databases in
order to reveal possible aliases, physical descriptions and possibly mugshots. “The Rapid-ID also gives alerts to us if a
person is on the sexual offender registry. They may try to lie about their
identity if they are found to be in a location they should not be.”-
Sergeant Rodney Campbell. The logic is that most criminals are already in your
local databases. The technology is immediate and accurate. When the information
captured by the device is compared against local and national databases come
back with no hits, the information is then discarded. Rapid-ID use has already
been beneficial to other Georgia law enforcement agencies. According to a
report made by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, over fifty percent of the
checks performed by Rapid-ID have resulted in hits for people already in local
databases. The Rapid-ID technology will serve as a “double-check” tool for our
officers.
“It is another tool we can use to help
identify a person. We have had instances where a person has used their roommate’s
ID when they have gotten in trouble with the authorities causing problems for
the person who’s ID was stolen. With the scanner, we can quickly make a
positive ID of a person using a fingerprint.” –Sergeant Rodney Campbell 