Funds needed for tribal fingerprinting

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Without more funding, the Navajo Nation's fingerprinting capabilities with the Arizona Department of Public Safety will end June 14.

Without needed upgrades to the equipment, the Nation's fingerprinting equipment will no longer be able to communicate with the State of Arizona's, explained Orlando Bowman, program supervisor for the tribe's Information Management System.

Bowman made his report Monday to the Public Safety Committee.

The tribe has only one Automated Fingerprint Information System machine in Window Rock and other law enforcement agencies have to run the prints through the state, Bowman said.

In all, IMS needs about $56,000 to keep functioning, he added.

If IMS needs to pay Arizona DPS $15,000 by June 14, why did the request not come forward sooner, asked PSC member Rex Lee Jim.

Bowman explained he brought it to attention for the fall session, but it failed to reach council floor for a vote, .

"I have diligently tried to address this through the chain of command," Bowman said.

The money is needed to cover AFIS costs, he added.

"It's only $56,000; I don't know why Mr. (Samson) Cowboy (director of Public Safety) can't pull that much from his budget for emergency funding," Chairwoman Hope MacDonald-Lonetree said.

The original maintenance upgrade cost was $30,000, but IMS managed to pay half of it, Bowman said. It's a crucial part of law enforcement and efforts to keep fingerprinting capability should be made, Bowman said.

PSC member Kee Yazzie Mann was curious about Bowman's assertion that he tried working along the chain of command.

He has provided information and documents to Chief of Police Jim Benally, but has not received any feedback, said Bowman.

"I have made efforts," Bowman said. "It's not something I've been sitting on. We did submit a strategic IT plan, but it was not recognized."

The Division of Public Safety seems to have had a lot of carryover funds from the previous fiscal year, Mann noted. He wondered why some of that money was not used to address IT's needs.

Bowman said he wasn't aware of carryover, that his superiors do not always inform him of what is available.

"We will ask Mr. Cowboy about that," MacDonald-Lonetree said.

It might be best if IT had its own budget, instead being tossed in under the Division of Public Safety umbrella, Bowman said.

John Christian Hopkins can be reached at hopkins1960@hotmail.com or by calling 505-371-5443