Fingerprinting-Duties of the police

Section 160.10 of the NY State Criminal Procedure Law

Fingerprints are taken or can be taken under the following conditions:
1. Following an arrest....the arresting or other appropriate police officer or agency MUST take or cause to be taken fingerprints of the arrested person or defendant if an offense which is the subject of the arrest or which is charged in the accusatory instrument filed is:

a-A felony; or
b-A misdemeanor defined in the penal law; or
c-A misdemeanor defined outside the penal law which would constitute a felony if such person had a previous judgement of convection for a crime; or
d-Several loitering sections

2. In addition, a police officer ay take the fingerprints of an arrested individual when arrested for any offense to obtain a true identity.

3. Whenever fingerprints are requires to be taken the photograph and palmprints of the arrested person or defendant, as the case may be, MAY also be taken.

Section 160.20-Fingerprinting; forwarding of fingerprints. Upon the taking of fingerprints....the police officer or agency must without unnecessary delay forward two copies of such fingerprints to the Division of Criminal Justice Services.

The two agencies that require fingerprint cards are:
1.DCJS
2.FBI
3.Local copy optional (all police departments keep local copy.)

Every Contact Leaves its Trace

Wherever he steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves, even unconsciously, will serve as a silent witness against him. Not only his fingerprints or footprints, but his hair, the fibers from his clothes, the glass he breaks, the tool mark he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood or semen he deposits or collects--all of these and more shall bear mute witness against him. This is evidence that does not forget. It is not confused by the excitement of the moment. It is not absent because human witnesses are. It is factual evidence. Physical evidence cannot be wrong. It cannot perjure itself. It cannot be wholly absent. Only its interpretation can err. Only human failure to find it, study it and understand it can diminish its value.

-Professor Edmund Locard 1877