Summary

This ballot measure would renew a 5-year property tax levy to support the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). AFIS is a regional program managed by the King County Sheriff's Office and provides fingerprint identification services to all cities in King County. The program will expire in December 2000 unless the levy is reapproved. The levy would raise about $54 million over five years. The proposed rate would be about 5.8 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation in 2001 and drop to about 5.0 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation in 2005. The proposed starting rate is a 12 percent reduction from the adopted rate of 6.650 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation and a 9 percent reduction from the currently assessed rate of 6.430 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation The rate 2005 rate would be approximately 22 percent less than the current rate.

Background

Since 1986 voters have approved this five-year levy three times. The last time, in 1995, it was approved by 73 percent of the voters. This is a nationally recognized program and has contributed to solving many cases that would have otherwise gone unsolved. AFIS enables positives matches to be made at double the national average and in short periods of time. There is a Regional AFIS Advisory Committee to guide the program’s implementation.

There are more than 430,000 fingerprints of known individuals in the database. This system allows criminals or persons suspected of having committed a crime to be quickly identified and crimes solved. Currently, 99.9% of persons booked into King County’s jails are fingerprinted. They can be identified within about 4 hours. This enables persons who are lying about their identification to avoid warrants and other charges to be detained for those matters. Before AFIS, it was so cumbersome to make fingerprint identification manually, that many law enforcement officers did not bother to check for fingerprints at crime scenes. With AFIS they do and criminals are identified in increasing numbers. There are many, many extraordinary histories of what AFIS has been able to contribute to the solving of crimes.

The major elements of the AFIS levy proposal are:

1. Continuation of existing services (five-year total cost of $50,249,711) King County Sheriff Office (KCSO) manages the Regional AFIS program. Seattle Police Department and Bellevue Police Department have staff that can access the KC AFIS computer directly. King County processes all AFIS work for unincorporated areas and cities except Seattle and Bellevue. SPD unit processes Seattle cases.

2. Staffing additions to handle low range estimates of increase workload (five-year total of $2,359,822 and 11 new positions). These are primarily related to additional demand for service anticipated from suburban cities.

3. Completion of Live Scan implementation by purchasing and implementing an additional seven units beyond the 22 funded for 2000 (one time costs of $498,400). Live Scan will allow electronic fingerprint taking and transmission from remote sites.

Implementation of Live Scan was supposed to have been accomplished during the current 5-year levy period. Implementation of Live Scan was originally planned for 1998, but was delayed by the need to upgrade to the AFIS 21 system for the Year 2000. It was also delayed pending definition of the Type 2 record by Washington State Patrol. This record is the standard for interfacing King County Regional AFIS electronic print records with the Washington State patrol AFIS to allow electronic transmission and merging of demographic and charge information.

4. Establishment of print taking at Juvenile Court for juvenile offenders who are never booked into detention. (five-year total cost of $557,677 and two new positions) Currently juveniles booked into detention are fingerprinted. Adding those adjudicated at Juvenile Court would more than double the number of juvenile prints in the database.

5. A target ending fund balance of $800,000 Recommended staffing for workload increases and additional technology improvements are at the low end of the range. This would allow for unanticipated staffing increases and technology improvements.

The program needs to be able to research emerging technology for possible application in King County. This is likely to include improved fingerprint imaging and matching technology. It could also include DNA technology although at this time, there are so many issues related to personal rights and protections and that DNA identification technology itself is still slow, this is not likely in the near future. In serious cases which warrant DNA testing, King County Sherrif send evidence to the Washington State Patrol Lab, but there is a long wait for results due to a backlog.

Analysis

Clearly this is a very effective tool in law enforcement. If the program is not continued, we can always go back to the old manual matching process, but that is very slow and cannot compare to the capabilities of AFIS. In return for the very high rate of success in fingerprint matching and crime solving, there is a price to pay for the advanced technology and highly skilled technical required to achieve this. It supports the Prosecutor’s Office, the local law enforcement agencies and helps put or keep the bad guys in jail. In many ways, this program is a necessity and no longer an option for modern day law enforcement.

It could be argued that that taxpayers are already paying too much in property taxes and this just adds to the burden. It could also be argued that the levy rate of 5.8 cents (not dollars!) /$1000 assessed valuation is a small price to pay for this service. Further, instead of increasing over time, this levy rate will actually go down to about 5.0 cents/$1000 assessed valuation in 2005. For the owners of a $200,000 property, the 2001 property tax charge would be about $11.67.

Since the beginning of the program, there has been the question as to whether a property tax levy is the appropriate funding mechanism for this program. It is largely supporting operational costs, not capital costs. For the most part, law enforcement is the responsibility of King County for the unincorporated area and the cities within their municipal boundaries. While King County manages the program, this is a regional service benefiting King County and the individual law enforcement agencies throughout the county. There is no county-wide funding source to support this service. It could be argued that each city should pay for its fair share of the cost of AFIS as they do for jail services. However, cities are even more financially challenged now than they were when AFIS first started and the cost of negotiating and administering contracts between King County and 37 cities would add significantly to the cost of the program. The problem of how to appropriately fund AFIS raises similar questions about how to fund increasingly specialized law enforcement services that have great benefit but are too costly for individual jurisdictions to support themselves (e.g. SWAT teams, K-9 teams). The Executive, County Council and the cities are committed to addressing this question during this levy period.

Arguments For and Against

For

• We have had this program for nearly 15 years we need to continue to fund it maintain and improve it as part of a modern, efficient and highly effective criminal investigation system.
• This is a regional service benefiting all citizens in King County so is it appropriate that it be funded on a county-wide basis.
• The cost to taxpayers for funding AFIS has gone down while operational efficiencies and technologies have improved.
• This is a necessary program that must be continued and not stopped while the issue of funding mechanism is addressed.

Against

• King County can find the extra money in the elected Sheriff's budget to pay for this without going to the voters.
• This levy is primarily for operations and should be funded from the county General Fund and not have to be from a voter approved special levy. The cities should contribute their fair share for this service from their regular city budgets.
• If we pass this, the County and city will continue to rely on this and not find a better way of funding this.

The Municipal League of King County recommends a “yes” vote on King County Proposition No. 1 (Harborview Medical Center Improvements) to ensure that Harborview will be able to serve the community when most needed.

For more information

External Links : This page contains many links to other web sites.  The Municipal League of King County is not responsible for the content of external web sites, and does not necessarily endorse the points of view expressed. When you click on an external link (denoted by ) the site will open in a separate browser window.

• Harborview Medical Center home page
• Earthquake could knock out state's top trauma center - Seattle Post Intelligencer, Tuesday, March 21, 2000
• Harborview is top priority for county - Seattle Post Intelligencer, Editorial Board, Friday, March 24, 2000
• Voters to decide on Harborview improvements - Metropolitan King County Council News release, July 10, 2000
• Yes! for Harborview committee does not yet have a web site, but they do have an e-mail address if you have questions: yesforharborivew@yahoo.com