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The Crime Information Bureau (CIB), an agency of the Division of Law Enforcement Services within the Wisconsin Department of Justice, is charged with the responsibility of maintaining complete and accurate identification information. In accordance with the Wisconsin State Statutes 165.83 and 165.84, the CIB must process, and all persons in charge of Wisconsin law enforcement agencies must obtain, or cause to be obtained; fingerprints, descriptions, photographs, and other available identifying data on persons who have been arrested or taken into custody pursuant to s. 165.83 (2); for an offense which is a felony; for an offense which is a misdemeanor or a violation of an ordinance involving burglary tools, commercial gambling, dealing in gambling devices, contributing to the delinquency of a child, dealing in stolen property, controlled substances under Chapter 961, firearms, dangerous weapons, explosives, pandering, prostitution, sex offenses where children are victims, worthless checks; for an offense charged as disorderly conduct but which relates to an act connected with one or more of the above listed offenses; or as a fugitive from justice. Additionally, the Crime Information Bureau must process fingerprints and identifying data taken at the discretion of law enforcement agencies on persons arrested or taken into custody for other offenses and obtain fingerprints and identifying data on unidentified human corpses found in the state. Fingerprints obtained pursuant to Wisconsin Stats. 165.83 and 165.84 must be forwarded to the Crime Information Bureau within 24 hours after they are obtained. In addition, persons not arrested or taken into custody by law enforcement agencies for mandatory fingerprintable offenses, but who are summoned or issued a citation for a mandatory offense, shall have fingerprints obtained at the initial appearance before a judge in accordance with s. 970.02 (7).
Wisconsin State Statute 165.83 (2) 5 authorizes the Attorney General to designate other offenses not included in s. 165.83 (2). On December 10, 1993 the Wisconsin State Legislature enacted Wisconsin Act 96 which created statutes relating to and providing penalties for stalking. State Statutes 165.829 requires the Department of Justice to gather and maintain information on arrests and judgments of convictions entered regarding all violations of s. 940.32 (stalking) and s. 947.013 (harassment). To complete the obligation imposed by this act, the Attorney General has designated s. 940.32 and s. 947.013 as mandatory fingerprintable offenses pursuant to s. 165.83 (2) 5. Any person arrested for a violation of s. 940.32 or 947.013 shall be fingerprinted and the fingerprint card shall be submitted to the Department of Justice. This includes all violations of these statutes, even if the penalties are misdemeanors and/or forfeitures that normally are not required to be reported.
There are three levels of criminal history records that may be created when a subject is arrested. The first level is the arrest and booking process at the local law enforcement agency. This process creates an arrest record and, if applicable, a court record. The second and third levels are created when the local law enforcement agency submits the arrestees fingerprints to the CIB (second level) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (third level). In October of 1998, CIB began receiving electronic fingerprint submittals from agencies using card scan and live scan equipment. These electronic records, when applicable, are forwarded electronically to the FBI after CIB completes processing.
It is important to remember that all arrest/conviction records in the CIB and FBI files are supported by fingerprint cards. The failure to submit fingerprints will result in an incomplete state and federal criminal history record.
Each individual appearing in the Wisconsin Identification Files is assigned a unique State Identification Number (SID) which should be retained by the local agency.
As provided by law, dispositions of criminal cases are received from the agency making the final disposition. At the time of arrest, law enforcement initiates a Final Disposition Report bearing fingerprint impressions and it is passed onto the prosecutor and/or to the court along with the case papers. When the final disposition is reached, whether it be by the prosecutor or by the court, the disposition report is forwarded to the Crime Information Bureau. In August of 1999, disposition reports began to flow to CIB electronically from the Consolidated Court Automation Program (CCAP) system from participating counties.
Based again on positive fingerprint identification, offender records are updated providing total information as to the final consequence of the criminal action. Wisconsin correctional agencies also report the receipt, transfer, and status of all persons under the supervision and custody of the State Division of Corrections.
In 1992 the State of Wisconsin contracted with North American MORPHO for the purchase of an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). The implementation of AFIS has allowed the CIB to electronically scan the submission of ten print fingerprint cards for search and comparison against the existing arrest fingerprint card master file that is stored within the AFIS database. This eliminates the need to search fingerprint cards manually and the pulling of file jackets of known offenders for identification. In addition, AFIS workstations are located at each Crime Laboratory in Madison, Wausau and Milwaukee. These devices allow the search of latent fingerprints obtained from crime scenes for potential identification against existing ten print fingerprint cards on file at CIB. Unidentified latent fingerprints are stored in the AFIS database for future comparison with subsequent ten print arrest fingerprint card submissions to CIB. Extensive research by the Department of Justice indicates that AFIS will become an indispensable tool not only in apprehending criminals and raising the rate of crime-solving in the state, but also in preventing crime and raising our conviction rate. Law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin collect more than 700 fingerprints at crime scenes each year. Fewer than 1 percent of those prints can be used to find the criminal. With an AFIS system, as many as 20 percent of the fingerprints found at crime scenes will help identify law breakers when evidence has been submitted to the Crime Laboratories for the lifting of latent fingerprint(s) and subsequent comparison to the ten print fingerprint cards maintained by CIB.
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