South Windsor Police Set New Fingerprinting Schedule

A steady increase in requests for fingerprints has caused the South Windsor Police Department to rethink how it offers the service.

Starting this week, South Windsor residents will no longer be able to just drop-in to the department and ask to be fingerprinted. Instead, the department has scheduled set hours and has joined the Manchester and Hartford police departments to offer a greater opportunity to complete the task.

The department hopes that by continuing to offer the service via a private vender it will be able to maintain customer service and keep patrol officers on the road, according to Sgt. Scott Custer.

"The chief’s goal has always been excellent customer service," Custer said of Police Chief Matthew Reed. "With budgets being what they are, we’re down four positions ... we’re running short handed. With 40,000 calls for service annually, we want to be able to be out there."

In the past, when someone came into the department for fingerprints, a patrol officer or non-sworn personnel were temporarily pulled from their duties to complete the roughly 20 minute task. Custer estimates that in 2012 this meant the loss of 200 to 300 hours of time when those officers and personnel should haven been out in the community.

"This will allow us to cut down on wait time when no one available because they are on a call and allows us to put more people back on the street to respond to the calls and preventive control," Custer said.

In 2012, the department provided 669 sets of fingerprints. Of those, about 500 were for pre-employment purposes (people who had to be fingerprinted for a future job), with 169 fingerprints associate with pistol permit requests.

Year to date in 2013, the department has had 130 requests for pre-employment-related fingerprints and 132 for pistol permit applications, according to Custer.

Under the new schedule, private vender Biometric Identification Services of Wethersfield will take and process fingerprints for the department. The service is free for the department, it just needs to provide the space, but there is a $25 fee for the individual being fingerprinted. (Personal checks and credit cards cannot be accepted)

Locations and times for fingerprinting are:


Tuesdays:

Hartford PD 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Manchester PD 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.


Thursdays:

Hartford PD 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

S. Windsor PD 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. 


Saturdays:

Manchester PD 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

No appointment is necessary, but remember to bring a valid photo ID!