DELAWARE STATE POLICE STATE BUREAU OF IDENTIFICATION
Captain Galen M. Purcell
Captain Galen M. Purcell serves as the Director of the State Bureau of Identification (SBI). Ms. Sharon Emerson serves as the Assistant Director. Sergeant Benjamin L. Nefosky serves as the Officer in Charge of the Firearms Transaction Approval Program (FTAP). Sergeant Thomas F. Carver serves as the Officer in Charge of the Sex Offender Registry. Sergeant Donna Simpson serves as the Officer in Charge of the Detective Licensing Section. SBI provides the state with a central repository for the collection and accurate organization of criminal arrest records, crime reports, and missing person reports. The director, along with a civilian staff of forty-nine people work in the following separate but interrelated sections; Fingerprint Identification Section, Criminal History Section, Quality Control Section, Detective Licensing Section, and the Sex Offender/Firearms Transaction and Approval Section.
Mr. Russell McNatt supervises the Fingerprint Section, which is responsible for maintaining fingerprint records on people who have been criminally arrested and for people who are applicants for various types of employment requiring criminal history checks. During the previous two year period, the section processed over 154,000 print cards. The section continues to process critical latent examinations revealing the identity of suspects who have committed many serious crimes leading to their arrest and conviction. Other police agencies frequently call upon this section to process evidence related to criminal matters. The section received and installed a new Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) in June of 2006, which was a significant upgrade allowing for the capture and comparisons of palm prints for criminal investigative purposes. The AFIS, a central system of fingerprint storage for comparison and identification purposes, is critical to the law enforcement community in Delaware. In 2007, all municipal police agencies throughout Delaware received new Livescan Automated Fingerprint machines which are interfaced with the AFIS System at SBI for electronic submission of fingerprints.
Ms. Teresa Jones is the supervisor of the Criminal History Section. This section is responsible for fingerprinting citizens and completing criminal history background checks for employment and/or other purposes. The section processed over 81,000 requests for criminal histories over this two year period. Additional duties include processing pardons and court ordered expungements.
Sergeant Thomas F. Carver supervises the Sex Offender Registry (SOR). The SOR is responsible for registering and tracking sex offenders as required by the Delaware Sex Offender Registry Law (Megan's Law). In November and December of 2006, the DSP formed a sex offender tracking task force to identify and arrest offenders who had not properly verified their address according to Delaware law. Fifteen troopers and three civilian personnel were assigned to the task force, resulting in 29 arrests for failure to properly re-register, as well as numerous other subjects properly verified as a result of the initiative. In 2007, the sex offender task force became permanent, with four detectives assigned to the unit. There were 70 arrests of sex offenders made by the unit in 2007.
The Firearms Transaction Approval Program (FTAP) falls under Sergeant Benjamin Nefosky. This function was established as a result of the Brady Law, which became effective on February 28, 1994. FTAP consists of four criminal history employees who respond to dealer inquiries for state background checks, which yield an approval or denial for the purchase of a weapon. There were 21,304 transactions processed, resulting in 711 denials of firearms purchases.
Ms. Renee Rigby supervises the Quality Control Section. This section was responsible for the quality assurance reviews of over 100,000 crime reports in 2006 and 2007. The section reviews reports submitted by police agencies throughout the state ensuring proper coding for reporting purposes to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Once this section has completed their review, incidents are then officially counted as a criminal occurrence for statistical and crime tracking purposes.
The Detective Licensing Section is supervised by Sergeant Donna Simpson and one civilian licensing specialist who are responsible for the licensing and regulation of the following industries; private security agencies and their employees, private investigative agencies and their employees, security systems and protective services agencies and their employees, non-state constables, and bail enforcement agents.
Ms. Sandra Warden supervises SBI North that consists of three civilian employees providing fingerprinting services to customers desiring criminal history checks, processing of security personnel, and registering change of address for sex offenders in New Castle County. SBI North is located off the lobby of Troop 2 in Glasgow and fingerprinted 25,767 customers over the past two years.
