The Orange County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $3-million contract with technology provider InCadence in August to provide fingerprint scanners to police officers and Sheriff’s Deputies. The devices will be used to run fingerprints on people the officers are arresting and detaining in the field, according to the Voice of OC. Around 450 fingerprint scanners will be procured under the deal which is being funded by a $1 fee on all OC vehicle registrations. Mobile phone software used by the FBI, known as Ares, will also be provided as a part of the three-year contract with InCadence.
Headquartered in Northern Virginia, InCadence was founded in 2009 and specializes in providing operational intelligence and high-end engineering services for Government clients. The hardware technology it is deploying to Orange County is known as the ‘Javelin‘ and described as a “rugged mobile biometric collection platform designed for Law Enforcement, Military, and National Security Operations.” It comes with either a 2 or 4 fingerprint sensor. It is not known which version of the Javelin Orange County has ordered, nor when the technology will be deployed in the field.
The Ares software is listed on the InCadence website as FBI Electronic Biometric Transmission Specification (EBTS) compliant, and having the ability to submit directly to local, state, or federal automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS). It can receive responses from local, state, Department of Defense, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security in seconds. Ares also supports Rapid Fingerprint Identification Search (RPIS), ten-print rap sheet requests (TPRS), and state and region-specific turned-over-to (TOTs) and responses. The Ares software also has the ability to collect face and iris biometrics according to the website.
Not everyone is in support of the OC InCadence deal. Privacy advocates are concerned that there will not be sufficient oversight of fingerprinting in the field, and that a database of fingerprints will be created unnecessarily. Carrie Braun, the spokesperson for the OC Sheriff’s Department, says fingerprints will not be stored. “The fingerprints will be used only for identity verification,” Braun said. “If people are otherwise at a protest, peacefully protesting, exercising their First Amendment rights, there’s no ability for law enforcement to just walk around and attempt to identify individuals.”
Braun confirmed that the new system will be able to search and match fingerprints from previous arrests, as well as California Department of Justice and FBI records. The California Department of Motor Vehicles fingerprint database can not be cross-referenced she said. According to the Voice of O.C., the Sheriff’s department noted that mobile fingerprinting will make it more efficient to book people during large-scale arrests and help prevent people from going to jail if they’re being issued a citation.
One commenter at the Board of Supervisors meeting by the name of Kelly called the use of the technology terrifying. “To use this money for funding this right now in the midst of a civil rights movement and a protest of police brutality is a massive statement about awareness of these incidents, or lack thereof, systemic racism and a move for the further oppression of BIPOC [Black, indigenous and people of color] human beings,” Kelly said.
Sargeant. Dennis Breckner, with the police public affairs division, says fingerprinting will only be sought only when the law is being violated. “Unless there’s a violation of the law, we can’t just detain somebody,” Breckner said referring to protestors. “That’s a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights. We want to make sure everybody can exercise their rights. Unless there’s been an unlawful assembly declared, none of those people are going to be detained.”