Police Fingerprinting on Traffic Stops

If
you're ticketed by Green Bay police, you'll get more than a fine.
You'll get fingerprinted, too. It's a new way police are cracking down
on crime.

If you're caught speeding or playing your music too
loud, or other crimes for which you might receive a citation, Green Bay
police officers will ask for your drivers license and your finger.
You'll be fingerprinted right there on the spot. The fingerprint
appears right next to the amount of the fine.

Police say it's
meant to protect you -- in case the person they're citing isn't who
they claim to be. But not everyone is sold on that explanation.

"What
we've seen happen for the last couple of years [is] increasing use of
false or fraudulent identification documents," Captain Greg Urban said.

Police
say they want to prevent the identity theft problem that Milwaukee has,
where 13 percent of all violators give a false name.

But in
Green Bay, where police say they only average about five cases in a
year, drivers we talked with think the new policy is extreme.

"That's
going too far," Ken Scherer from Oconto said. "You look at the ID,
that's what they're there for. Either it's you or it's not. I don't
think that's a valid excuse."

"I would feel uncomfortable but I would do it," Carol Pilgrim of Green Bay said.

Citizens
do have the right to say no. "They could say no and not have to worry
about getting arrested," defense attorney Jackson Main said. "On the
other hand, I'm like everybody else. When a police officer tells me to
do something, I'm going to do it whether I have the right to say no or
not."

That's exactly why many drivers are uneasy about the fine print in this fingerprinting policy.

Police
stress that the prints are just to make sure you are who you claim to
be and do not go into any kind of database; they simply stay on the
ticket for future reference if the identity is challenged.