Aug 11, 2017 3 min read

Patrolling a township situated just off Interstate 79 near Interstate 70 and midway between Pittsburgh and Wheeling, W.Va., it is not unusual for Chartiers Township police to encounter people who are not from the area. And for whatever reason, some of those people are not always forthcoming in giving police a correct name.

Now, thanks to the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association and a grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the department has received a mobile identification device that will allow officers to conduct fingerprint searches in the field. Chartiers is one of only two departments in Western Pennsylvania to receive the equipment.

In cooperation with the Pennsylvania Justice Network, the association has established a secure server to receive and transmit fingerprints from the device to the state police Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

Chief James Horvath said the device is actually a Samsung Galaxy S5 cellphone that is equipped with a scanner to check fingerprints.

“The person’s fingerprint must be in the system for us to get a positive identification,” Horvath said, adding the system can check not only the state but the national database. One digit from each hand, usually a thumb, is scanned with the device.

In the past, if a person was not forthcoming in giving police their name, an officer would have to go either to the Washington County booking center, if that office was open, or to the state police barracks in North Bethlehem Township, where the fingerprints could be checked on a Live Scan machine.

“This will be a big help for us,” Horvath said. “We are at the crossroads of two major highways and about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh and 20 miles east of Wheeling. Sometimes, we have someone trying to hide their identification from us for whatever reason.”

Horvath said officers have encountered people who give a relative’s name instead of their own.

The device will be kept in the patrol unit being used by the sergeant or officer in charge of a shift. Horvath said the fingerprints are not permanently stored by the device. Any hit received by the machine still needs to be confirmed through the National Crime Information Center.

Horvath said the device also could be used to help identify a person who is having a medical emergency but does not have any identification. He said the device was used earlier this summer to help identify four murder victims found buried on a farm in the eastern part of the state.

“This is something else that will protect not only our officers but the residents,” Horvath said.

Members of the department completed training on the device earlier this week.