Five police departments in Chautauqua County will be awarded more than $40,000 in state funding to upgrade their electronic fingerprinting equipment.

The announcement, made Monday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, stated that $710,000 in state grants will be awarded to 51 police departments and sheriffs’ offices statewide that have been hampered by malfunctioning or obsolete fingerprinting technology.

The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office, along with the Fredonia, Ellicott, Jamestown and Dunkirk police departments will collectively receive $43,989.

“Fingerprinting is a proven and highly effective crime-fighting method – which drives us to help law enforcement agencies record and share fingerprints as efficiently as possible,” Cuomo said. “These grants will help departments across the state, regardless of size, maintain a vital form of equipment, and I am proud that the state is able to help our local partners in this way.”

Joe Gerace, Chautauqua County sheriff, said the funding not only allows his agency to avoid substantial out-of-pocket expenses, but it ensures that electronic fingerprinting – or live scan fingerprinting in which fingers are rolled against a glass plate and scanned- will continue to be an effective and advantageous method of accountability at the Sheriff’s Office.

“There are some really significant advantages (to this technology),” Gerace said. “You have instant notification if the (fingerprint) image you are putting down in the computer is unreadable. Previously, you would roll a bad ink card, send it in (to the state) … it would get rejected, and the defendant would already be gone. You couldn’t fix it.”

Gerace said the upgraded technology particularly saves money and time for the state, since it is the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services that collects and stores fingerprint data.

“Entry into the system is also very quick in that the print is analyzed and compared electronically,” Gerace said. “So if someone comes in under a false name, we have notification within a few hours that that person isn’t who they said they are.”

According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, any municipal police department or county sheriff’s office in the state was eligible to apply for this funding and could apply for more than one device if the agency hosts a regional server that allows others to electronically submit fingerprints to the state and FBI.