In an effort to go paperless, beginning in May the Indiana State Police is requiring fingerprinting to be done at a specific location that has a live scan machine to electronically scan fingerprints. These locations are set up throughout the state where a sheriff’s department is not involved in that part of the process. When complete, the fingerprints will electronically be sent to the state via the internet.
Sheriff Gayer believes that the fingerprinting process can still be done at the local sheriff’s department.
“We have that technology at Pulaski County and every sheriff in the state has the live scan technology machine,” explained Sheriff Gayer. “However, we are not allowed to hook it up to the internet in order to send that information to them.”
He adds that the Indiana Sheriff’s Association is not pleased with the Indiana State Police’s decision to go on in the manner they have suggested.
“We feel it’s going to be a huge inconvenience for our respective citizens that they must travel to another county. In our case and in Starke County they will have to travel to LaPorte, Plymouth, Logansport, Rensselaer, to one of these civilian sites, to have this process done when we can actually do it in our own county at your local county sheriff’s department,” said Gayer.
The Sheriff’s Association is negotiating with the Indiana State Police Superintendent to allow local control.
“We believe we may be able to get something done in the near future which will be a lot easier for the residents of our respective counties to get their fingerprints done,” Gayer said.
The Pulaski County Sheriff’s staff still processes quite a few firearm permits a day.
“We currently are processing probably three to four a day. It’s down a little bit. We were running about five to seven a day. We have 67 pending in our system right now where people have started the process but somewhere along the line they forgot about it.”
The public has been swarming police agencies wanting firearm permits. It’s now a 14-week wait to get your license.
For more information on the handgun permit process, visit www.in.gov/isp.
