New fingerprint scanners granted to Ohio courts will bolster criminal records system

Marion Star
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A grant program designed to enhance the accuracy and completeness of the state’s criminal-records repository will pay for 77 new devices courts across Ohio will use to capture defendants’ fingerprints for submission to the database. Among the recipients is the Marion County Common Pleas Court Family Division.

“Fingerprints are a critical piece of the puzzle when verifying someone’s identity and checking their criminal backgrounds,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. “These grant funds are being invested in the courts to further modernize the record-keeping system by building in a more fail-safe process to collect fingerprints. In doing this, law enforcement, employers and even everyday Ohioans can have greater confidence in the system.”

Ohio law requires the Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) to maintain the state’s Computerized Criminal History (CCH), a database of fingerprints and criminal records based on information supplied by 200+ courts statewide as their cases conclude.

A grant program will pay for 77 new fingerprint scanners for 42 courts across Ohio, including Marion County Common Pleas Court.
A grant program will pay for 77 new fingerprint scanners for 42 courts across Ohio, including Marion County Common Pleas Court.

The records are relied upon for criminal investigations; prosecutorial charges; sentencing decisions; correctional supervision and release; and background checks for those applying for licenses or firearms purchases, and those who work with children, older Ohioans or people with disabilities.

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 CCH.

The devices, which cost $898,450, were purchased through a National Criminal History Improvement Program grant being administered by the Attorney General’s Office. It is the latest such federal grant that Yost’s office has applied for and received in recent years to modernize numerous aspects of that state’s criminal record-keeping and reporting processes.

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion County Common Pleas Court to get new fingerprint scanner device