The Westchester County Public Service Department’s electronic booking information system will be made available to other counties in the region.
The Public Safety and Security Committee of the Westchester County Board of Legislators gave its approval for the program which will allow for inter-municipal agreements with municipalities in the counties of Putnam, Rockland and Dutchess to access its electronic fingerprinting and digital booking photographs.
Public Safety Chief Inspector Martin McGlynn briefed the committee that identifications can go beyond facial recognition.
“If done correctly if you arrest somebody, let’s just say they have a butterfly tattoo on their left arm, you should really take a picture of that and you should note it in the system,” McGlynn said. “So now, three years later, I either have a dead body with a tattoo on his arm or a suspect with a butterfly tattoo on his arm. We can search that database and say, ‘Give me everybody that somebody entered butterfly tattoo,’ and there’s a picture.”
The full board of legislators is expected to approve sharing the system.