By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, May 11, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS Page A01
Christopher Villone was in a Bergen County Jail cell on burglary charges one day in late March when investigators walked in and told him he was being charged with four more counts of burglary.
The state’s year-old Automated Fingerprint Identification System had analyzed prints found at a burglary scene in River Edge and identified Villone as a suspect. He was subsequently tied to three other break-ins.
Without the automated system, it’s unlikely that Villone, a 19-year-old Bergenfield resident, could have been tied to the additional burglaries, police said.
Until recently, police in North Jersey could not take full advantage of the computer because they had to travel to Trenton to use it.
But last month, the system was installed at the state police barracks in Totowa. Officials are looking forward to the benefits it will bring.
The computer has 1 million fingerprints in its memory and can identify suspects within 23 minutes.
Since its installation in May 1990, it has identified suspects in more than 360 cases, including 28 homicides, state police Sgt. Phil Boots said.
But before the system came to the Totowa barracks April 23, only five of those identifications were for Bergen County crimes. Other North Jersey law enforcement agencies fared little better, Boots said.
Before computerization, a detective who took fingerprints from a crime scene had to compare them with file cards containing fingerprints of known suspects, Boots said.
It would take 167 years to do what the computer does each time it is presented with a print from a crime scene.
Keywords: NEW JERSEY; POLICE; COMPUTER; TECHNOLOGY; CRIME
Caption: COLOR PHOTO – Linda DeVries operating computerized fingerprint system.
ID: 17342837 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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