The San Francisco Police Department could be the recipient of technology that would enable them to collect fingerprint and DNA data at crime scenes rather than waiting for processing thanks to a proposed city budget that would allocate $3 million for the upgrade, according to a San Francisco Examiner article.
The specific technology the budget hopes to bring to the city’s police force consists of handheld devices developed by biometrics developer Cogent Systems called Mobile Ident III that can collect and store DNA, fingerprints and digital photos while also checking the collected data against the police’s criminal database.
While officials pushing for the new equipment are hopeful that it could greatly assist the police in solving crimes more quickly, some worry it could put their sanctuary policy in jeopardy by opting them into the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Secure Communities program which checks criminals fingerprint data with their own database to determine if they are illegal citizens.
City Supervisor David Campos has acknowledged that while he is still pulling for the new technology that many of the tools given to police to better solve crimes often have privacy concerns around them.
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