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TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Eric Westrom, Lieutenant
DATE: 10/29/2021
SUBJECT:
Resolution to re-hire certified fingerprint analysts Julie Smith and Gina Minetti as contractual consultants for the purpose of fingerprint analysis and identification at the Aurora Police Department.
PURPOSE:
To request authorization from the Aurora City Council to re-hire certified fingerprint analysts Julie Smith and Gina Minetti for the purpose of conducting fingerprint analysis and identification as part of the Department's continuing program to maintain a complete in-house fingerprint capability for the Aurora Police Department.
BACKGROUND:
Formerly, for all crimes occurring in Aurora (DuPage County excluded), the Aurora Police Department had submitted fingerprint evidence to the Illinois State Police's Joliet Crime Lab (JCL) for analysis and identification. Due to overstretched resources and heavy caseloads at the JCL, it was taking several months for them to process and return fingerprint evidence from crime scenes submitted for Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) comparison.
As we waited for our AFIS submissions to come back, the citizens of Aurora suffered needless victimization at the hands of criminals, often times felons, who remained unidentified and free to continue their criminal pursuits while fingerprint evidence that could link them to previous crimes was waiting processing by the JCL. This continued victimization has monetary costs as well as psychological costs that negatively impact the quality of Aurora citizenry.
Fingerprint evidence is still amongst the strongest of all types of evidence, it is possible to get charges authorized against an offender on the basis of fingerprint evidence alone. In order to better serve the public by combatting crime and removing criminals from the streets of Aurora at the earliest possible opportunity, the Department developed its own complete in-house fingerprint capability to include lifting...
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