Yesterday's Claremont Courier had an article by Tony Krickl about a new digital (no pun intended) fingerprint scanner that is small enough to be carried in the field.
Los Angeles County obtained 500 of the devices through a U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security grant, and Claremont received one of these units. According to the Krickl article, the Claremont Police Department used the new piece of equipment at a DUI checkpoint they ran last week on Indian Hill Blvd. south of the 10 Freeway.
The article said:
Among those stopped at the checkpoint was a man who told police that he did not have his driver license. His car was pulled off to the shoulder, where police asked his identity.
“He supplied a name that we ran a records check on that came back with no match,” Claremont Police Captain Jenkins said.
The Claremont Police Department recently received mobile fingerprint scanning devices, which can be used in the field to find matches within a fingerprint ID database.
Claremont Police Corporal Chris Bradley then put the department’s new gadget to use for the first time. The man’s index fingers were scanned right at the scene and 5 minutes later, the police had the information they needed.
“We were able to pull up all his real information; his name, date of birth and all that,” Corp. Bradley said. “And then we saw that he had a no-bail parole hold.”
Albert Dominguez, 26, of Chino, was a parole violator out on murder charges. He is now in custody in Los Angeles.
The article reported that the device compares subject fingerprints against a database of fingerprints taken from people have have been "booked previously through the Los Angeles County penal system."
The Daily Bulletin also had an article on the new fingerprint system. The Bulletin quoted CPD Captain Gary Jenkins as saying that eventually the system should expand beyond LA County to the entire state. Jenkins also told the Bulletin CPD hopes to be able to get enough units, which run about $1,000 a piece, for every on-duty officer.
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In other CPD news, we got to wondering about that guy CPD pulled over on the 10 Freeway on July 9th. You might recall that CPD called in a drug-sniffing dog from the Upland PD, and it turned out the car had a hidden compartment containing 6 pounds of methamphetamine and 15 pounds of heroin with an estimated value of around $900,000.
The Daily Bulletin's article on the arrest indicated the motorist, Gusberto Uriarte, was charged with suspicion of driving without a license and was also booked by CPD on charges of possession of a controlled substance for sale, possession of a controlled substance, and transportation of a controlled substance. Uriarte also had an outstanding arrest warrant.
So what happened to the Uriarte? We expected the CPD and city public information folks to be all over this one. It's not everyday CPD makes a nearly $1 million bust. But there was nothing. Silence.
A reader alerted us to the fact that the Los Angeles County Superior Court website listed a Gusberto Uriarte as being charged on July 11th in Pomona Court with only one charge: Section 12500(A) of the California Vehicle Code - being an unlicensed driver. Here is an image our reader sent of the LA County Court info:
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
The reader states this is the only arrest listed in LA County for the name Gusberto Uriarte. So what happened to the other charges? Just wondering. Hope it wasn't a bad search or some sort of administrative flub that caused the drug charges to be rejected by the District Attorney's office.
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