Fingerprinting on Traffic Stops (Green Bay)..stopped after public pressure

[rainbow4321]

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?s=2776926


If you're ticketed by Green Bay police, you'll get more than a fine. You'll get fingerprinted, too. It's a new way police are cracking down on crime. If you're caught speeding or playing your music too loud, or other crimes for which you might receive a citation, Green Bay police officers will ask for your drivers license and your finger. You'll be fingerprinted right there on the spot. The fingerprint appears right next to the amount of the fine.

Police say it's meant to protect you -- in case the person they're citing isn't who they claim to be. But not everyone is sold on that explanation

Citizens do have the right to say no. "They could say no and not have to worry about getting arrested," defense attorney Jackson Main said. "On the other hand, I'm like everybody else. When a police officer tells me to do something, I'm going to do it whether I have the right to say no or not." That's exactly why many drivers are uneasy about the fine print in this fingerprinting policy.

Police stress that the prints are just to make sure you are who you claim to be and do not go into any kind of database; they simply stay on the ticket for future reference if the identity is challenged




http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=ll_chat&Number=293254661&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=21&part=

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Police are getting rid of a new policy that had officers seeking a fingerprint from traffic violators, following public outcry against the idea during the two weeks it was in effect.

Officials said the policy would have prevented about a half-dozen people a year from being wrongly jailed because of the increase in people using false names and fake identification. Authorities stressed the fingerprint collection was voluntary and wouldn't be used to build a database, as some residents had feared.

Cmdr. Ken Brodhagen said the department decided to modify the policy after it was the subject of criticism on talk radio and through e-mails to the department.

"A lot it had to do with Big Brother: 'Oh yeah, right, you're not putting it into a database,"' he said.

[KitchenWitch]

1. I guess privacy is only for the rich and powerful!

[purduejake]

2. Yea, I'm sure they throw out all the voluntary DNA samples, too.

[JohnnyRingo]

3. I read recently that in Iraq we use retina scans at traffic stops.

We used them too when allowing citizens into the city through Falujah checkpoints.

Right now they must be judicially testing random fingerprinting.
If the policy flies...."look into the beam, please"

On edit:
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/12/06/returning_fallujans_.html

The US military is drawing up plans to keep insurgents from regaining control of this battle-scarred city, but returning residents may find that the measures make Fallujah look more like a police state than the democracy they have been promised. Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times

[Why Syzygy]

4. six people a year

saved from wrongful incarceration.

Oh, that sounds about right.

Photos anyone?

jeeziz

This does spell "h.o.p.e" though . imo ..
Americans are not gonna allow a police state.

Are we?

[rodeodance]

5. good for GB citizens!!

[gandalf]

6. Discussion in Germany just now: DNA sample of shop-lifters?

After the murder of a prominent member of the Munich society (Rudolf Mooshammer) the murderer was found quickly because his DNA had been stored earlier.

Now many politicians suggest to take DNA samples even from shoplifters (currently, a DNA sample is taken only when someone committed a major crime, and a judge must approve).

Seems as though privacy isn't that important nowadays when it comes to "security".

[Why Syzygy]

7. what the hell

went wrong with fingerprints?

Why does this need to involve genetics?

Something not right here.

[gandalf]

8. That's politics based on fear, I guess...

DNA is much "nicer" from the view of a police man because one leaves DNA samples nearly everywhere, but not necessarily a fingerprint.