By Sam Gilkey
For the News-Gazette

Gone are the days of ink-stained fingers, smudged sheets of paper and smeared lines and circles when a person was fingerprinted.

The St. Cloud Police Department uses a $16,000 digital machine to scan fingers and sends the results on to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement offices in Tallahassee.

The procedure takes only a few minutes and is done by a group of volunteers who staff the community substation at the corner of 10th Street and New York Avenue.

“Our volunteers are a high, valuable resource for our department as well as the city of St. Cloud,” said Community Outreach Officer Chad Durham.

He explained that the volunteers do the job an officer in the department would have been called in to handle in the past. That could have entailed the officer stopping work on an assignment or require the person to be printed wait a long time.

The police volunteer program was started in 2005. Durham said there are about 15 men and women who work four to eight hours a week in the downtown office that once was police headquarters and later a bank.    

The office is open Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, except holidays, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cost for fingerprinting is $10 for a city resident and $15 for non-residents. Only checks or credit cards are accepted for payment.

Bobbie Bartfai schedules the volunteers and has worked there since December 2007.

“I had retired and wanted to do something that didn’t pay any money,” she said with a smile. “Extra income just messes up your pension and Social Security.

“I like the work. You get to meet all kinds of people and some days we have a large number come in.”

She said the list of those needing to be fingerprinted seems to be on the increase.

“Anyone who wants a concealed weapons permit, is a nurse, is connected with DCF (Department of Children and Families) or anyone who wants a career-type job will need to be fingerprinted.”

As you age your finger prints change.

“The older you get, the less prints you have,” Bartfai said. “Nurses tend to lose their prints because of the chemicals they come in contact with and because they wash their hands so often. Construction workers will also wear off some of their prints.”

Once fingerprints are in the Florida system they can be matched up with those taken years ago in other states.

“If there is a warrant in the system,” Durham said, “that match will alert a police agency and you can expect a knock on the door.”

Durham joined the St. Cloud Police a year ago after 19 years with the Kissimmee Police Department. He was named community outreach officer in May.

“My position falls under the Special Operations Division,” he said. “It is to promote the St. Cloud Police Department to its citizens through community projects and events. I show the community what the department is doing to improve life in the city.”

One of the new projects of the department, Durham said, is issuing DNA kits at no charge to parents.

A child’s DNA can be obtained by getting a hair sample, blood sample and a saliva sample. Once the samples are taken they are placed in the kit’s envelope, sealed with tape and placed in a freezer bag to be stored in a refrigerator or freezer.

“Parents just need to update the child’s height and weight each year and include a new picture in the kit,” Durham said. “The samples will last 30 years. Our volunteers have the kits at the downtown substation.”