Mobile Fingerprint Scanner Allows Police To Identify Criminals

CANTON, GA -- 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?

To help solve this conundrum faced by officers, the Canton Police Department has rolled out the Data Works Plus Rapid-ID.

The agency is among a growing number of Georgia police departments utilizing fingerprint matching technology to aid in criminal identification.

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Rapid-ID technology will use a suspect's fingerprints to search local databases in order to reveal possible aliases, physical descriptions and possibly mugshots.

The technology is immediate and accurate. When the information captured by the device, it is compared against local and national databases.

If there is no return on a request, that information is then discarded.

Canton police note the technology will serve as a “double-check” tool for our officers.

“It is another tool we can use to help identify a person," said Sgt. Rodney Campbell. "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.”

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Image via Canton Police Department