The Importance of Real-Time AFIS QC'ing

[josher89]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20091011/NEWS01/710119974

I was glad to be able to help this guy out (allbeit after the fact) and limit his time spent in jail. This is just another way to use fingerprints to exhonorate someone instead of assisting in convicting someone. It also illustrates the need for real-time fingerprint QC'ing from jails; by the time the fingerprints have been QC'd, the individuals are long gone from jail.

[Alan C]

Did you happen to run Faux Joe's rap sheet or maybe send his prints to the FBI for a search? It's hard to believe he doesn't have other arrests elsewhere under his real (or another fake!) name. We have the same situation happen too, though, where the name/DOB of the ID victim are all we have available to call the bad guy.

[josher89]

Alan C asked:

Did you happen to run Faux Joe's rap sheet or maybe send his prints to the FBI for a search?

I did and got back the only arrest on file (ours). Nothing else. Based on what the DHS contact told me, he was 'voluntarily deported' to Mexico back in 2001. This incident originally occurred in 2002. So, he got back in the US, was probably a drug mule or something, and got back out of the US without committing any more crimes. I haven't spoken with his original attorney (I haven't even tried that yet!) to see if he had any information on him. I'm guessing that because of the article, the paper has already done so and being that they didn't print anything, they probably didn't get anything.

I also understand that a warrant contains biographical information (name, DOB, etc.) and not a fingerprint record. Although there might be some jurisdictions that have an NCIC classification on it which would've been be helpful here except the patrol officer would have no idea about fingerprints nor the jailers (as far as class. and such). So, it would be useful but only to the right people.

[Gerald Clough]

It can sometimes be a problem when there is a sparse history and no reliable name and date of birth, and you don't want to cause someone unneeded grief. I had a burglary case once in which a very nice print was recovered from the back of a wrist watch clearly handled by a burglar and dropped on the bedroom floor. No state hit, but there was one in the adjacent city/county database. They keep AFIS records on all arrests, and this guy had a single arrest for public intoxication when he was a passenger in a DWI stop. (The vehicle contained burglar tools.) He had no identification at the time, so it was far from certain that the name and date of birth given at booking was genuine. This presented a difficulty in avoiding the arrest of some innocent whose information he might have used. The warrant and indictment were therefore oddly titled as "State of Texas v. A male who has identified himself as <name> and whose fingerprints and photograph are attached as Exhibit A." That made him a uniquely identifiable individual, which is all a warrant requires. The warrant was entered under the name and date of birth given, with a notice that the fingerprint images and photographs should be obtained through our Communications to confirm identification. He was eventually picked up again, this time for another burglary, in the jurisdiction who originally provided the hit record.

There used to be a guy, in Florida I think, who was repeatedly arrested and turned over to the Navy as a deserter because someone signed up under his identifier. Got to know Navy brigs very well. I think he eventually was given a letter from the Secretary of the Navy to carry that explained the situation and how to tell them apart. A petty crook (prostitute and crack addict) carried a letter from me for several years with my 24-hour phone number to keep her from constantly being arrested for check fraud. Her twin sister had tried (almost successfully) to frame her for an arson of the twin's house and pretended that checks were stolen and then went around cashing them while dressed trashy in a red wig to impersonate her sister who, so far as I can tell, never did a check crime in her life. (Neat case that turned on a fingerprint heat-etched into a Coke can with the true owner-arsonist swearing she never bought cans and that any fingerprint must be the arsonist's.)

[printlady]

Victims of identity theft in Washington state can get fingerprinted on a green ‘identity’ fingerprint card for a fee. After a search through the state database a letter is returned to the submitter that they have no criminal record (or a copy of their record is provided). We advise them to carry the letter on their person at all times. I would think that it would also be advisable for Joe to carry copies of the documents used to release him from his two mistaken incarcerations. If he presents this documentation and is arrested a third time and the officer and/or detention facility doesn’t make a reasonable effort to verify his identity before booking him, he would probably have a justifiable lawsuit. I know our jail lost a similar law suit and is now very cautious when people insist they are not the correct person.

[josher89]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20091023/NEWS01/710239946

Real Joe is good to go.

No more glancing over his shoulder. No more mistaken warrants or arrests. And, he hopes, no more nights, or holidays, in jail.

After The World-Herald reported about an identity theft case that led police to jail Omaha resident Joe Salazar twice — including once for more than two weeks over Christmas and New Year's — authorities this week dropped the criminal charge and warrant that mistakenly named Salazar.

“It shouldn't have happened in the first place,” Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said of Salazar's jail stints. “We're not going to let it happen again.”

Real Joe hopes so.

In the past 10 months, Salazar, 38, has spent more than 16 days in jail in “one of the worst” identity theft cases that Kleine said he has seen.

Each time, authorities believed they had the Joe Salazar that a judge listed on a bench warrant. Each time, they eventually realized the warrant was for an impostor who had disappeared after using Salazar's identification during a drug arrest in 2002.

“It was pretty bad,” Salazar said. “Pretty ugly. I was worried about getting pulled over and having to go through the whole thing again.”

It turns out, authorities could have prevented the whole ordeal with a few timely fingerprint checks.

A synopsis:

Someone stole Salazar's wallet in late 2001 or early 2002.

In October 2002, Omaha police arrested a man on suspicion of cocaine possession. The man — Faux Joe — gave officers Salazar's driver's license, was fingerprinted and was booked into the Douglas County Jail.

Faux Joe bailed himself out of jail and eventually disappeared. Douglas County District Judge Patricia Lamberty issued a warrant for his arrest.

Six years later, on Christmas Eve 2008, Real Joe was pulled over for speeding near West Point, Neb.

An officer ran his name through police records, discovered a warrant for a Joe Salazar and took him to jail.

Salazar told authorities that he had no warrants. Thurston County sheriff's officials ran his fingerprints in a computer system and determined that, indeed, he wasn't the Joe Salazar listed on the warrant.

However, they said, they had to deliver him to the Douglas County Jail because officials there had a “hold” on him.

Salazar immediately told Douglas County corrections officials they had the wrong guy.

Even so, he sat in the Douglas County Jail for two weeks — over the Christmas and New Year's holidays — after jail officials told him he would have to wait to plead his case to Judge Lamberty, who was on vacation.

No one told Salazar that he could ask to appear before a duty judge who fills in for vacationing judges.

Salazar eventually called an attorney and was released on Jan. 7.

Lamberty then reissued the warrant for Joe Salazar with this caveat: “Please re-verify identification of Joe Salazar due to mistaken arrests.”

That note didn't solve Salazar's problem.

On Oct. 6, Salazar called Omaha police to report a burglary at his home. An officer took the report, then ran Salazar's name in police computers.

Up popped the warrant.

Salazar and his girlfriend explained the mix-up and the holiday jail stay. But staring at a man with the same identification and information that was listed on the warrant, the officer told Salazar he had to take him to jail.

The officer booked Salazar into the Douglas County Jail. However, he didn't run Salazar's fingerprints through a computer system that could have shown he wasn't the wanted man.

“Hopefully, it's a learning experience for everyone so that it doesn't happen again,” said Lt. Darci Tierney, an Omaha Police Department spokeswoman.

Kleine said it became abundantly clear that the warrant was worthless — that authorities had no idea who Faux Joe was. Now investigators can run Faux Joe's fingerprints through a national database to see if they match any known criminal — something that Kleine called a long shot.

Unfortunately, Kleine said, no one brought Salazar's first mistaken jail stay to his attention.

“We're not going to just let this continue to happen to this kid,” Kleine said. “No one should have to go through that.”

Salazar, a forklift operator at an Omaha warehouse, kept the mix-up quiet from most of his friends and co-workers — fearing that they may not believe he was in jail because of an innocent mistake.

Several people told him they were shocked to read about his travails, he said, and he received a lot of sympathy but no solutions — until this week.

Now, he hopes, he can rest easy. No warrants. No worries.

“At first, I couldn't believe it was happening to me,” he said. “Then, I don't know, man, I sort of got used to it.

“I'll just be glad to not have to deal with it anymore.”

Cheers for the attorney's office for dealing with this in an efficient manner. We are lucky the individual hasn't sued; he would have grounds for a great case. Anyway, I don't think he'll be bothered by LEO's for mistaken identities anymore.

I do like the idea of printlady for any future problems. It is now my mission to ensure that this doesn't happen again, hence the need for speedy QC'ing, rapid identification of criminals and victims.