Hill County Sheriff's Office gets new equipment

The Hill County Commission approved the purchase of a new inkless iTouch Biometrics fingerprint scanner for the Hill County Sheriff’s Office at a meeting Tuesday.

Hill County Sheriff Jamie Ross said his department is part of the U.S. Marshals Sexual and Violent Offenders Task Force, meaning they help enforce compliance of laws that require said offenders to register, which would be the primary use of the scanner.

Ross said the scanner can also be for general use, helping anyone register for other things that require a fingerprint.

He said they have a scanner installed in the Hill County Detention Center, but there’s no reason to have people going in there if they don’t have to, so the scanner is practical for a lot of applications.

He said the U.S. Marshals have offered to reimburse them for the $11,530 expense as long as they agreed to use county funds to purchase the scanner.

Hill County Commissioner Jake Strissel said this is a reasonable purchase for the department and he’s glad the U.S. Marshals have offered them this opportunity.

The commission approved the purchase 2-0 with Commissioner Sheri Williams not present.

While they were there, Strissel said, he wanted to discuss another possible new piece of equipment for the sheriff’s office, a body scanner.

Ross said it is essentially the same thing as one would find at an airport and would help the department prevent contraband from entering the detention center.

He said it is an expensive piece of equipment, though, with the estimated cost coming in at $169,100, over $10,000 more than the estimate given to them last year.

Strissel said he reached out to Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale’s office and spoke with one of his staffers who said he would ask around and see if there was any funding the department could make use of.

He said he’s reached out to others including the U.S. Border Patrol, but for now Rosendale’s office is their most promising lead and it might be a while before they get a response.

Ross said there is also money coming into the community for opioid abatement and this would be a relevant use for those funds as it would prevent drugs from coming into the detention center, which Strissel agreed with.