Do You Need Live Scan Fingerprinting
Numerous agencies require fingerprinting for people every day. Fingerprints are part of a background check for employment or volunteer opportunities. In the past, law enforcement personnel obtained your fingerprints with a pad of ink and a card. Once the personnel recorded them, they had to physically enter them into background processing systems. Fortunately, things have changed due to live scan fingerprinting. What is live scan fingerprinting and what are the benefits it provides? Read on for more information.
What Is Live Scan Fingerprinting?
Live scan fingerprinting is a more progressive way of capturing your fingerprints using computerized equipment. Once a live scan technician collects your fingerprints, they are sent directly to a government agency utilizing an Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or AFIS. Once there, your fingerprints allow AFIS to generate a background report for your requesting agency.
Live Scans Offer Faster Turn Around
As an employer or an applicant, the last thing you want to do is wait weeks for the fingerprinting agency to return your fingerprints. Unfortunately, this has been the timeframe in the past.
The results are turned around in days versus weeks with live scan fingerprinting. Once you submit your fingerprints to the fingerprinting agency, the agency digitally transmits them to the Department of Justice for your background check. Once the DOJ completes the background check, they return your background check to the requesting agency.
Live scan fingerprinting is also a faster process for you to participate in. Once you arrive at the processing center, because the process is digital, it should take no more than a few minutes. All you have to bring with you is the following:
- The fingerprint request forms from the requesting agency
- A valid government-issued photo ID
- Payment for the service, if required
Some requesting agencies will pay any required fees for you. They will advise you of this before sending you to your appointment. Once your fingerprints are scanned and accepted by the system, you will be free to go.
Live Scans Eliminate Errors
Nothing is more frustrating than waiting weeks for your fingerprints to return to your potential employer or volunteer organization. After your extended wait, you sometimes have to be reprinted because the initial set needs to be clarified. Ink is notorious for smudging, which causes unreadable fingerprints.
Live scan fingerprints are digital. Digital printing means no ink is involved, eliminating the potential for smudging. Live scans produce better quality prints, ensuring you only have to be printed once.
To learn more, contact a legal service that offers fingerprinting such as A-1 Fingerprinting and Drug Screening
