New palm-print scanners have case backlog waiting

Starting next year, police agencies and jails in Snohomish County will be able to identify individuals by their palm prints, technology that the Sheriff's Office says could help solve a backlog of nearly 200 cases.

Palm-scan machines will allow the agencies to utilize hundreds of palm prints collected from crime scenes where no fingerprints were found. The palm prints will be compared against thousands the county has been collecting from criminals over the past several years, said David Bales, the support-services bureau chief for Sheriff Rick Bart.

"The ID techs have assured me that there will be an instant caseload" for the technology, Bales said.

Though the county can compare fingerprints against those in a state database to identify suspects and confirm identities of people after they've been arrested, there's no state database for palm prints, Bales said.

Palm-scan technology, which will be purchased through about $1.4 million in federal grants, is the latest extension of fingerprint technology, Bales said.

"The whole community watches 'CSI,' and they expect us to be able to do this stuff," said Bales, although he added that he was among those who have never watched the popular crime-scene-investigation TV show.

Snohomish County will be the second county in the state, after Pierce County, with the ability to compare palm prints electronically, Bales said.

"We're really going to be ahead of the curve on this, maybe way ahead of the curve," he said.

The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office plans to buy 15 machines, which will be given to the county jail, several municipal jails and a few of the largest police agencies in the county.

The machines will be networked with the Sheriff's Office in Everett, where there will be a central database for palm prints, Bales said.

Grant money also will pay for a third identification technician to help with the backlog of cases, as well as setup, maintenance and training costs, Bales said.

The State Patrol is working on a system upgrade that would let it store full palm prints in 12 to 18 months, but the Patrol said it won't be able to search those prints in its database for some time after that, depending on when money for that technology becomes available.

Brian Alexander: 425-745-7845 or balexander@seattletimes.com