FAIRHOPE, Ala. - The Fairhope Police Department has a new automated fingerprint scanner in the municipal jail. 

The machine, a Crossmatch L-Scan 500P, was purchased at no cost to the city by using a $25,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) Law Enforcement and Traffic Safety Division, according to an FPD news release. 

The scanner digitizes fingerprints for instantaneous electronic submission. 

“This is an improvement over the traditional method of taking inked fingerprints on a fingerprint card to be submitted manually,” Sgt. Craig Sawyer stated.  “Using instant submission allows the prints to be checked against the print databases maintained by the Alabama Department of Investigation (ABI) and FBI.  If the fingerprints that are submitted match an existing print in the database, the information is instantly available.  This allows officers to identify a subject by fingerprint within a matter of minutes, rather than days, if that subject’s prints are already in the database.”

The police department now meets all state and federal requirements for fingerprint submission, the release stated.

“Although the scanner is primarily to collect fingerprints as a means of recording and identifying arrestees, it will also be used as a tool in our service to our residents,” Sawyer stated. “Citizens frequently require fingerprinting in conjunction with background checks for adoptions and job applications.”

The FPD provides the fingerprint service free of charge to residents of the city of Fairhope and to any person applying for a job within our jurisdiction (if that employer requires fingerprints).  All other citizens must pay a $25 fee. 

Citizen fingerprinting is offered Tuesdays and Thursdays between 1 and 4 p.m.