Jul 14, 2014 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Greene County is ranked sixth worst statistically for fingerprinting compliance by law enforcement, according to data compiled by PublicSource.

The report gives the statistics for a six-month period for each county, and in 32.8 percent of cases in Greene, fingerprints were missing from a state police database. Washington County was in the middle of the pack at 18.8 percent. Included within the county statistics is a breakdown by police department of the percentage of criminals being fingerprinted after an arrest.

Waynesburg Borough Police Chief Rob Toth took the report very seriously. When Toth learned Greene County’s placement, he quickly scrutinized the percentage of compliance for his own department. According to the report, Waynesburg Borough officers are fingerprinting 83.33 percent of the time after making an arrest.

Of 36 criminal cases in Waynesburg Borough from July to December 2013, six of those arrests did not result in fingerprints being recorded, according to PublicSource. This ranked the borough just behind the Waynesburg state police at 85.37 percent but Toth wasn’t satisfied with the result. He pulled the case files of the six listed as missing fingerprints and found that just two were missing a fingerprint card.

By statute, arrestees are to be fingerprinted within 48 hours of being taken into police custody. Toth said there are situations when this is made more difficult. In the case of an intoxicated or a very belligerent individual, for example, it is hard for an officer to get a clear set of prints, Toth said. In those instances, officers will sometimes wait until a preliminary arraignment, where there has been time for the person to dry out, detox, or simply calm down. The magisterial district judge will then order prints to be taken.

Even in these situations, the system isn’t perfect, Toth said. If a judge orders the person to present themselves for fingerprinting within a specified amount of time, that does not mean the person will show up to have it done.

Toth’s department is currently researching a digital booking system. At this time, Waynesburg Borough police officers use the traditional ink and paper method of fingerprinting. Until recently, photos of suspects were taken with a film camera. The new system would digitize these processes and connect to the Internet to send the files directly to the National Crime Information Center and the state police.

At the bottom statistically in Greene County were the Southwest Regional Police Department at 11.11 percent and the Cumberland Township Police Department at 48.51 percent. Out of nine arrests made by SWRPD in Greene County only one of those suspects was fingerprinted, according to PublicSource. In Cumberland Township, 49 of 101 arrests resulted in fingerprints being taken.

“I’m not sure how the report was constructed and how they came up with those percentages,” said Cumberland Township police Chief Craig Miller. “We are currently reviewing each of the cases in the report to make sure fingerprints are or were obtained in each arrest.”

Miller said officers fingerprint persons as they arrest them and then submit them, but his department, like Waynesburg Borough, is using the old technology.

“A centralized booking center in Greene County, similar to those implemented in Washington and Fayette Counties, would be a major step in fast-tracking the suspect’s information,” Miller said, noting these booking centers use live scan (digital booking systems), like the one Waynesburg Borough is considering.