SALEM — Retired Salem police Detective Jim Gauthier has little patience for sloppy ink work.
But it sometimes happened over the years that an officer taking a suspect's fingerprints would not produce a clean and precise replication.
"If I get a fingerprint from a crime scene that's better than the one that's supposed to be rolled on a card, I can't comprehend that," said Gauthier, a fingerprint expert who still works part time.
New technology has eliminated that frustration. Within the last month, the department abandoned the ink method and began using a machine that digitally scans prints.
"It won't let you take a bad fingerprint," Gauthier said.
The advancement will benefit not only Salem police, but police from several area departments, thanks to a federal program that encourages collaboration and cost-saving sharing of technology.
With a portion of a $250,000 grant, Salem recently upgraded its firing range. The now fully mechanized range — targets can be retrieved by pressing a button — will be available to Beverly, Danvers, Hamilton, Wenham and Salem State University officers for training.
"Anything that we can do is open to our partners," Salem Chief Paul Tucker said.
At the range, officers will be able to use a good guy/bad guy electronic screen target that will force them to make split-second decisions.
The target, which Salem is on the verge of purchasing, will be uploaded with more than 400 scenarios. With hardware that can be installed temporarily in their firearms, officers will be able to shoot a laser at the target if the scenario and the threat depicted calls for it. Their weapon will still recoil when fired.
Authenticity is crucial, according to Salem Lt. Mark Losolfo.
"When you train, you want to train as if it's real life," he said.
Losolfo is in charge of spending the money that Congressman John Tierney helped secure for the department. Losolfo is set to buy two mobile devices that will be able to immediately download information from a cellular telephone or computer. The department is also purchasing technology that will allow it to enhance video footage.
The electronic fingerprinting machine, which cost about $40,000, was funded through a smaller federal allocation that preceded the $250,000 grant.
In addition to accuracy, electronic fingerprinting lets the department process fingerprints much more quickly. Information gathered when someone is booked now appears on a computer screen and does not have to be re-entered before prints are taken.
Everyone arrested is fingerprinted. Instead of sending a set of prints via "snail" mail to the state police for the agency to check against its records, prints are immediately conveyed by computer to the state police and FBI. Within 15 minutes, Salem receives a report of the criminal history, if any, attached to them.
Other departments will have access to the fingerprinting technology. They will also be able to use an in-house fingerprint database that Salem has built up over the years, thanks in large part to Gauthier.
His expertise is well-known in local law enforcement circles. He once helped solve an armed robbery case by lifting a print from inside a latex glove that was left behind in a car ditched by the suspects.
"He has been an innovator in this area," Tucker said, "and we're very fortunate to have him."
Gauthier, meanwhile, appreciates the technology that makes it a little easier to do his job.
"It's a big boon for us," he said.
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