The Halton Regional Police Services Board has approved the $128,794 purchase of three Cogent Livescan Fingerprinting Systems that, when deployed, will greatly improve the ability of the police to determine whether suspects in custody have already run afoul of the law and how to deal with them.

The new systems electronically send a suspect's fingerprint information along with the suspect's description, pending charges, address, etc., to the RCMP who process it and, in the event of conviction, update the suspect's criminal record.

Detective Sgt. Dave Broughton of the Halton Police Forensic Unit noted that the systems are light years ahead of what the police are currently working with.

"The system that we're working with now is completely manual, it's all hard copy (paper)," he said.

"There's quite a paper flow that goes back and forth between us and the RCMP. They take the set of fingerprints we send them and check their database to see if it's someone whose been arrested before and if it's a new person, they issue them a new fingerprint number."

The RCMP then sends a photocopy with this information back to police who hold onto it until there is an outcome at trial.

When this happens, the information is sent back to the RCMP, who then update the suspect's criminal record.

The problem police have with the existing system is that sending these physical fingerprint files back and forth takes weeks or even months to be processed with the RCMP currently dealing with a huge backlog.

The new electronic systems are expected to cut this turn around time down to hours, which Broughton noted is important as having access to an up-to-date criminal record can determine an officer's course of action when it comes to dealing with a suspect.

"If someone has been arrested and convicted of failing to appear in court before, that may affect an officer's decision as to whether a person is held for bail or released on a 'promise to appear order,'" he said.

"It also has an effect on sentencing. If a person is convicted of impaired driving, and then they're arrested and convicted of impaired driving again, if that first conviction didn't show up on their criminal record, that suspect is going to miss out on the mandatory sentence that comes with a second impaired driving conviction."

These new systems are also important when it comes to clearing civilians for specific work where background checks are required

"If someone comes in and says they want to work as a coach with a hockey organization and they need a clearance to say they don't have a criminal record, that they haven't been convicted of a sex crime against a child, that's something we'd run their fingerprints for," said Broughton.

Once the new systems are in place, the RCMP is guaranteeing a no more than 72-hour turn around time for these types of clearances.

The Livescan devices, which are expected to be in place in about a month, are being deployed to maximize efficiency with one intended for the cellblock area of Milton Court to eliminate the almost daily need to transport prisoners to Halton Police Headquarters for fingerprint processing.

A second device will improve the fingerprinting services of Milton's 12 Division, while Halton Police Headquarters in Oakville will receive the third.