Getting a gun? Medical marijuana? Undergraduate / graduate? Background check/prints please

[The Straight Story]

One of the heaviest users of fingerprints are the 500 undergraduate and graduate education students at Montana State University Billings, who need background checks before they can step into a classroom, even as sophomores. The checks must be upgraded every second year and every five years for teaching certificates.

While praising Kenco’s work, College of Education Dean Mary Susan Fishbaugh said she and campus Police Chief Scott Forshee are considering investing $8,000 in a digital fingerprint machine. It may not save the students much money because the fees would probably be the same, but the college could save them time, she said.

“Our students are busy people and most of them have family responsibilities,” Fishbaugh said. “They are working and are carrying full loads.”

Another solution would be having Kenco come to campus for occasional fingerprint days, rather than have each student travel downtown.

http://billingsgazette.com/business/article_8907b5eb-31ff-5861-9bf1-d8f025772522.html

[TheWraith]

1. I really don't like the ubiquity of fingerprinting these days.

Registering people against the possibility that they might do something bad is simply wrong.

[forestlake123]

3. Completely Understand!

I carry a concealed gun where ever I am allowed in Michigan.
When the truth is that the people who carry a concealed weapon are people who commit much less crimes.
In all states the percentage of people who commit deadly crimes is below the average of the rest of the population.

[votingupstart]

4. just playing devils advocate here

if you knew your fingerprints were on file would that be a consideration for not committing a crime?

or would you just buy gloves?

[forestlake123]

5. I dont think it matters..

Like you said people would just put on gloves

It is like all other random things that have a "good intent" but doesnt do anything good.

Just like gun free zones
all the school shootings have been at schools that are gun free zones..
It is sad that had to happen and I am not trying to say that if students could carry they would have stopped it
but there is that slight possibility..

If you really think about laws like "gun free zones" the criminals will always just walk past the sign and smile at it and it ensures that people who follow the laws are just defenseless

[TheWraith]

6. It wouldn't matter, in my view, for several reasons.

One is that most people whose prints are on file don't necessarily KNOW their prints are on file. Maybe it was for a work ID that they forgot about, maybe they didn't realize the information would be stored. Maybe the were fingerprinted in kindergarten--yes, they actually do that these days. It's allegedly for the recovery of missing children, but that information never goes away.

So the deterrent is hardly comprehensive. And besides which, even if people knew, most wouldn't care. Crimes committed without premeditation are, well, committed without premeditation. The perp didn't think about it beforehand, so nothing is going to deter them. And if they did premeditate, it's not that hard to get a pair of gloves.

It's the same basic reason that the death penalty doesn't deter murderers. People don't plan on getting caught for their crimes, they expect to get away with it.

So what's left? Yes, now and then fingerprints produce results, but more often than not they're only used for confirming what the investigators already knew or suspected. That leaves us with a massive database of personally identifiable citizen information, which never goes away, never runs out of date, and is never disposed of.

[Exilednight]

2. Oh great, now we're turning schools into the NSA. What's next, monitoring their cell phones? n/t