DEVICES TO HELP POLICE VERIFY IDENTITIES.Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer GLENDALE - With the help of advanced gadgets that can read fingerprints Impressions or reproductions of the distinctive pattern of lines and grooves on the skin of human fingertips. Fingerprints are reproduced by pressing a person's fingertips into ink and then onto a piece of paper. and driver's licenses Noun 1. driver's license - a license authorizing the bearer to drive a motor vehicle driver's licence, driving licence, driving license license, permit, licence - a legal document giving official permission to do something , Glendale police will be able to quickly discern dis·cern v. dis·cerned, dis·cern·ing, dis·cerns v.tr. 1. To perceive with the eyes or intellect; detect. 2. To recognize or comprehend mentally. 3. the identities of motorists and others they stop on the street. With $183,000 in grants and city funding, the Glendale Police Department plans to purchase driver's license and fingerprint readers A scanner used to identify a person's fingerprint for security purposes. After a sample is taken, access to a computer or other system is granted if the fingerprint matches the stored sample. A PIN may also be used with the fingerprint sample. that will be hooked up to mobile data computers mounted in patrol cars. Through a wireless network, the computers will connect to databases with information on a person's identity, and whether he is a wanted criminal and has outstanding warrants. ``This makes things go a lot faster and also contributes to officers' safety,'' police Lt. Peter Michael said Tuesday. Michael said officers currently have to radio in driver's license information to a dispatcher Software that determines what pending tasks should be done next and assigns the available resources to accomplish it. It may execute other programs or generate a list for human operators to follow. See scheduler. for verification. If they have a mobile data terminal inside their patrol car, they have to type in the license number to get verification. While typing in the information, Michael said, officers could be exposed to danger. ``It just takes a split second to swipe that card, so the officers won't be off guard,'' he said. The fingerprint fingerprint, an impression of the underside of the end of a finger or thumb, used for identification because the arrangement of ridges in any fingerprint is thought to be unique and permanent with each person (no two persons having the same prints have ever been and driver's license readers are scheduled to be installed in police cars by January 2003 as part of a multimillion-dollar capital improvement project to replace radios and the 12-year-old terminals, which have become obsolete. When the new technology is in place, Michael envisions paperless police reports and streamlined record-keeping. ``In the future, we are looking at officers taking preliminary information on a Palm Pilot device, take digital pictures of crime scenes and include that as part of the report,'' he said. ``Everything is paperless.'' |
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