Scouts learn about fingerprinting from an Eagle Scout police officer

More photos inside, and in Photo Gallery
November 13, 2009
by Christine Yeres

Last Thursday evening, November 5, nine sixth through twelfth grade boys of Chappaqua Boy Scout Troop 2 and their Scout Master Tom Keane met with New Castle Police Officer Jim Dumser – himself an Eagle Scout – to earn their fingerprinting merit badges. Night court was in session upstairs at Town Hall, and because a defendant who appeared in court had been arrested for an additional charge that night, officers conducted the defendant downstairs to police headquarters to be – you guessed it – fingerprinted.

Each new arrest means a new set of fingerprints, even if someone’s been arrested previously.  Since the cramped police headquarters afforded little chance of privacy for the defendant, Dumser explained, the Scouts would begin their badge work in the adjoining lunch room and talk the talk before printing the prints.

Dumser is now 30. Back in 1997, for his Eagle Scout project he orchestrated a two-day fire safety and bike safety course for first and second graders in his hometown of Wappingers Falls, New York. A police officer had visited his course, too, to demonstrate fingerprinting. Soon after, Dumser joined the Marines, then served as a police officer in Mt. Vernon, New York, and came to the New Castle Police Department two years ago.

Developments in fingerprinting methodology

The traditional method of fingerprinting, rolling inked finger tips onto paper, is now reserved mainly for civilian purposes such as identification for a job, Dumser told the troop. The arches, loops and whorls – not even those of identical twins are the same – are captured nowadays, he explained, by high-tech electronic infrared scanners. As non-inked fingertips are rolled across glass, scanners read and record them much as supermarket scanners read the bar codes on groceries. These “Live Scan” machines record whole-palm prints as well. 

The Scouts meticulously examined a police cruiser Dumser had rolled out in front of headquarters, then got to their fingerprinting.

The Scouts had learned through their leaders that Dumser had become the father of a baby girl three weeks before, so they presented him with a gift bag containing a tiny pink jumpsuit, to encourage him in his work towards his new-father merit badge.

Tweet