LIMA — The Allen County Clerk of Courts’ office has been awarded funding through the Ohio Attorney General’s office for the purchase of a device designed to close any existing gaps in the collection and recording of fingerprints of defendants charged with crimes.
The program, intended to enhance the accuracy and completeness of the state’s criminal records repository, will pay for 77 new devices in courts across the state, Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday.
The devices, which cost $898,450, were purchased through a National Criminal History Improvement Program grant being administered by Yost’s office.
The new machines, called LiveScan devices, will be distributed to courts in 42 counties, helping to shore up gaps in defendant fingerprinting and to automate courts’ submission of those fingerprints to the statewide database.
Ohio law requires the Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation to maintain the state’s Computerized Criminal History, a database of fingerprints and criminal records based on information supplied by more than 200 courts statewide as their cases conclude.
Allen County Clerk of Courts Jennifer McBride said statutory requirements require her office “to make sure everyone looking at criminal charges is photographed and fingerprinted.”
She said the new device will be used primarily by the county’s Adult Probation department. Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Reed brought the availability of state grant funds to the department’s attention, McBride said.
According to Reed, the attorney general’s office requires a fingerprint card to be kept on file for all criminal defendants. Defendants are typically fingerprinted as part of the process of being booked into the county jail.
However, recent changes in state law surrounding the sealing or expungement of criminal records revealed that not all applicants had up-to-date fingerprint data on file. There are other occasions where defendants, for various reasons, do not have fingerprints on file with the state, Reed said.
“I talked to Kelly Nees at the probation department and we thought it would be helpful to have a second machine. We plan to put the LiveScan device in the probation office for those persons who are out on bond and don’t have a fingerprint card,” the judge said. “Currently we have to send those people over to the sheriff’s office to get fingerprinted, but with the new machine, we won’t have to do that. This will supplement what the sheriff’s office is doing. It’s just an added precaution.”
Yost said his decision to fund the LiveScan devices was influenced by court feedback and supported by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy of the Supreme Court of Ohio.
“Courts are mandated to provide accurate reporting of criminal case information, supported by essential fingerprinting in background checks,” Kennedy said. “LiveScan devices will aid courts in fulfilling that statutory requirement by improving the efficiency of reporting, underscoring our commitment to prioritizing the safety of Ohioans.”
