$814,000 Grant to Make the Criminal Records System More Effective in PA

fingerprinting--west_midlands_police-flickr_0According to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), Pennsylvania police departments failed to collect the background data on over 1,500 felons.  That means 1 out of every 9 times, police failed to do their most basic of jobs.

To improve this worrisome trend, the PCCD has just been awarded a $814,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice which will be used to upgrade the technology at police stations.  They plan to use that money to purchase Live Scan Plus devices which are all inclusive units which record biometic data as well as photographs.

The data collected from these devices will be fed into a statewide database which is available to those doing a criminal background check on an individual.

While expanding this technology is encouraging, the fact that police are failing to perform their most basic of all duties so often is troublesome.  This is apparent in many of the tasks they are required to do such as collecting evidence, calibrating radar, calibrating a portable breath test, other testing machines, and administering roadside field sobriety tests.

Justin McShane

PA DUI attorney Justin J. McShane is the President/CEO of The McShane Firm, LLC - Pennsylvania's top criminal law and DUI law firm. He is the highest rated DUI attorney in PA as rated by Avvo.com. Justin McShane is a double Board certified attorney. He is the first and so far the only Pennsylvania attorney to achieve American Bar Association recognized board certification in DUI defense from the National College for DUI Defense, Inc. He is also a Board Certified Criminal Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court Approved Agency.

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