A WINNING IDEA, HANDS DOWN HIGH-TECH FINGERPRINTING BUSINESS APPEARS HEADED FOR BLACK INK.

Byline: Stephanie Cain Staff Writer

PASADENA - Some great ideas seem to just fall from the sky. For personal injury attorney Harry Scolinos, the idea to start his own fingerprinting business came from his golfing partner.

Since starting up in October, Pasadena-based U.S. Fingerprinting has taken the telltale images from more than 500 people, most of them potential employees for schools, day care centers and volunteer leagues that deal with children.

It was Pasadena Unified School District Police Chief Jarado Blue, U.S. Fingerprinting's vice president, who suggested there might be a niche worth filling in the fingerprinting market with Live Scan, a computer that uses the latest technology to take prints, Scolinos said.

With the state Department of Justice asking more and more often that fingerprints be taken using Live Scan, traditional ink cards were quickly becoming outdated.

Live Scan scans fingerprints, then downloads them to the state Department of Justice. While traditional cards can take as long as five months to yield results, Live Scan produces results within a few days.

Blue made the suggestion in March. The idea was six months from germination to fruition, and in October, the first truck emblazoned with a U.S. Fingerprinting logo rolled down the street to its first job, at the San Gabriel Christian School.

The privately held business, backed financially by Scolinos and Blue, isn't consistently turning a profit but it's headed in the right direction, Scolinos said.

``Our primary goal is to protect children,'' Scolinos said.

``Some months we're (making money), some months we aren't. We feel there's a need out there, and that, unfortunately, there's going to be more and more of these incidences we've been reading about in the papers, and that Sacramento is going to mandate that these people who have direct access to children be fingerprinted.''

U.S Fingerprinting charges $15 to $20 per person, depending on the total number of people to be printed. That's a few dollars more than most police departments charge, but it's a matter of convenience and timeliness, said U.S. Fingerprinting sales representative Mitch Gremillion.

Scolinos and Gremillion said they hope to turn a significant profit by getting a contract with at least one major youth organization.

For Gremillion, who used to caddy for Scolinos at the Annandale golf course, U.S Fingerprinting was a fresh opportunity.

``He was about the second-worst golfer I'd ever seen,'' Gremillion joked. ``I started kidding with him, and he said, You know, you have a way with people. Why don't you come see me.''

The goal is to grow by two trucks every six months, with five to seven trucks, with two computers on board each truck, covering Southern California from Santa Barbara to the southern border within the next two years. After that, it's onward to Northern California, Scolinos said.

The San Gabriel Christian School had already been turned away by at least one law enforcement agency that wasn't equipped to handle the school's needs, said Jean Minke, the principal's secretary.

``They've been very good,'' Minke said of U.S. Fingerprinting. ``Whether it be an assistant basketball coach to custodial staff, any time we have anyone that we actually hire, we immediately fingerprint them, no matter what their title is.

``The police stations weren't really enthusiastic about doing it,'' Minke said. ``If you go in there they have to charge you, and they have to figure out what the charge would be, and then it has to be sent to the state.''

The Hawaiian Gardens Casino has fingerprinted about 300 potential employees through U.S. Fingerprinting.

``The convenience for our employees has been absolutely fantastic,'' said Sue Watts, director of human resources for the casino.

``The efficiency of the Live Scan is just tremendous. They would normally have to call the Los Angeles County Records and Information Bureau and make an appointment, and that can take six to eight weeks. And of course that impedes our business because we cannot actually employ anybody unless they have been fingerprinted,'' Watts said.

State law requires anyone who works in the gaming industry to be fingerprinted. The results go to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which either approves or denies the hire, Watts said.

``They're very reasonable,'' Watts said of U.S. Fingerprinting. ``It's just been such a great business for us to have found.''

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Photo: (color) U.S. Fingerprinting representative Mitch Gremillion checks a fingerprint taken from Shondrea Davis, a new employee at the Hawaiian Gardens Casino.

Lisa Billings/Staff Photographer