Sheriff’s Office – Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI)

Lower Level, County Administration Building, Somerville

 Robert McCarthy Supervisor (908) 231-7137  mccarthy@co.somerset.nj.us

The responsibilities of the Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) include fingerprinting and photographing of all individuals placed in the Somerset County Jail.  BCI personnel classify fingerprints and do comparisons to establish true identity of all arrested individuals.  The Bureau performs warrant checks on all defendants that enter the Somerset County Courthouse.  In addition, records of all arrests within Somerset County are maintained by BCI.  The BCI Unit is also responsible for processing all applicants for employment to the Sheriff’s Office and the County Jail.

Organization

The Bureau of Criminal Identification is a subdivision of the Law Enforcement Division of the Sheriff’s Office. The BCI Unit consists of seven civilian officers, one supervisor and three clerical employees.

Major Functions or Programs

• Office Hours:  Monday through Friday 7:00a.m. to 4:30p.m.
• On call 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
• Criminal files:  80,000 criminal files are maintained
• Somerset County Probation:  Uses BCI to update files of probationers.
• Somerset County Police Academy:  Initial background checks are done for the alternate route program.
• Background checks for county agencies.  BCI services are used for background checks for employment by the following:  Somerset County Human Resources, Somerset County Superior Court, and C.A.S.A. for Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren Counties.
• Warrants:  Provide information regarding outstanding criminal and traffic warrants and national crime information center (NCIC) warrants to the Somerset County Jail and other law enforcement agencies.
• Missing persons:  Information is supplied to local police agencies.
• Somerset County Jail:  BCI supplies information regarding bail.  All inmates prior to their release on bail, time served or transferred to other institutions are checked for warrants.

• Warrant Sweeps Sheriff’s Office – Assists in the pre-warrant sweep intelligence gathering.  During warrant sweeps, BCI fingerprints, processes verifies and classifies all individuals arrested.
• Drug Sweeps Prosecutor’s Office – Fingerprints, photograph, verifies and classifies all arrested individuals.
• Child Fingerprint Program – Fingerprints students in a number of county school districts.  After gaining parental permission, children are fingerprinted and parents are given the prints to retain. 
• Training –Instructs police recruits basic fingerprinting methods at the Somerset County Police Academy. Provides in-service training for Police Officers.
• Photo Line-Ups – Identification Officers prepare photo line-ups for municipal police departments and the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office.
• Fingerprint Comparisons – Provides identification of suspects and arrestees for police agencies for classification and verification of fingerprints.
• Classification/Verification of Fingerprints – All individuals arrested and/or incarcerated are fingerprinted.  The fingerprints are classified and the suspect’s identity is verified.
• DNA Samples – The legislation enacted in September 2003 mandates that every person convicted or found guilty of a crime or by reason of insanity shall have DNA sample taken.  The law applied to all individuals sentenced to terms of imprisonment and/or probation for crimes of the first through fourth degree.
• Provide student, teacher and counselor fingerprinting for Raritan Valley Community College

Our many capabilities have been very valuable to the law enforcement communities of Somerset County and the State of New Jersey.