Patrol officers in the U.S. National Capitol region will now be able to take fingerprint images in the field with the deployment of MorphoTrak’s MorphoIDent, a small mobile terminal that can capture fingerprint images in the field.

Police agencies in Fairfax and Prince William counties, among others, have ordered 220 of these identification terminals. They will help officers clear people who have identical names as someone else, eliciting a suspect to be truthful upon receipt of a hit and identification confirmation of incapacitated individuals.

The MorphoIDent device has an intuitive user interface and a large color screen that’s visible outdoors, yet it fits into a shirt pocket. It’s capable of capturing two fingerprint images per subject and sends those to the police agency for comparison within a local fingerprint database. Responses come within a minute and are signaled through vibration.

Having the device in the field enables officers to have more knowledge when dealing with subjects who come up as positive matches in the system.