License, insurance card, thumbprint
In Kansas, who may also pass CCW today:
If you are stopped by police in Kansas, don’t be surprised if the officer pulls out a little black box and takes your fingerprints.
The gadget allows officers to identify people by fingerprints without hauling them to the police station.
Over the next year the Kansas Bureau of Investigation will test 60 of the devices with law enforcement agencies around the state. State officials said similar tests are being planned for New York, Milwaukee and Hawaii.
“This is definitely new,” said Gary Page, Overland Park Police Department crime lab. “It’s been talked about, but as far as I know they are not in use anywhere in the metro.”
The tests in Kansas are part of a bigger $3.6 million upgrade to the KBI’s statewide fingerprint database, unveiled Tuesday by the KBI and Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline.
Now, if you’re suspected of something and are going to get printed anyway, I’d take no issue with it. However, if they just start printing everyone, I think that is a serious concern for civil liberties.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:46 am
If they are going to do that, maybe they should dispense with the requirement to carry a driver license while driving, CCW while carrying, etc. Once they run your fingerprints, they have access to all that information and more, so what’s the point of carrying an easily-forged piece of paper around?
March 23rd, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Once they run your fingerprints, they have access to all that information and more, so what’s the point of carrying an easily-forged piece of paper around?
1. So they can give you a ticket
(honestly, they have had computers and radios for decades, why must I carry proof of insurance?)
2. The fingerprint-o-matic and the associated backend hardware and stuff was made by the lowest bidder.
3. The psychological effect of carrying around a permission slip from the government for the right to exist is a powerful tool.
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Here in Michigan they changed the fine for driving with an expired Proof of Insurance from $100 to $300. They forecast that it would increase revenue and they were right. But it also caused such an outrage that they had to repeal it. But the governor said she would veto the repeal if the legislature didn’t find another way to provide the expected income from projected violations. It wasn’t about enforcing the law – it was about generating income.
What’s *really* annoying is the need to have PoI in the vehicle at all. A few years ago, the Secretary of State (DMV) added a feature to the vehicle registration that provided a six digit number indicating you had continuing insurance on your car and didn’t need to provide PoI to the SoS when paying your yearly registration fee. So if the SoS doesn’t need the PoI to re-register the vehicle, why do the police need it if you are stopped?
Obviously, they don’t. It’s all about the Benjamins….