Last week members of the Marshall County Council discussed the purchase of an iTouch Biometric Fingerprint system for the Probation Department.
Marshall County Sheriff Matt Hassel had received commissioner support for his request in their December. On January 8th the same information was presented to the County Council.
While there is an iTouch fingerprint machine at the jail, sometime a person never gets taken to jail. They go through the court process and plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge which might be for a domestic violence situation but they aren’t sentences to jail time. The jail has no mechanism to collect their fingerprints.
The sheriff reverenced the church shooting in Texas where the alleged shooter had a history of violence but his fingerprints were not in the system so he would have been able to purchase a firearm.
Having an iTouch Biometric Fingerprint machine in the probation department will allow those convicted to have their fingerprints added to the State’s Odyssey system.
Sheriff Hassel is asking for $15,208.15 to purchase of the state police preferred iTouch Biometric Fingerprint system.
The council unanimously voted to support the purchase. They will advertise an additional appropriation for the purchase in their February meeting.
