MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Many years ago, police departments had to take people's fingersprints using an ink-to-paper method. 

Back in 2004 the Meridian Township Police Department received their first live scan machine. A live scan machine takes live scan of finger prints to keep on file. Assistant Chief Ken Plaga said since fingerprinting went digital, it has made the process a lot easier and doesn't allow for mistakes.
"Now when you take your fingerprints electronically, the system matches this fingerprints against the five-print-slap that we take initially and make sure that it's left and right are actually in the correct boxes," explained Plaga.

Just last month, the Meridian Township Police Department received a grant from the State of Michigan to update their live scan machine. Their new machine not only take live scans of fingerprints, but also takes live scans of palm prints too.  With the ability to now capture palm prints, the Meridian Township Police department is hopefully it will be a great tool in helping them solve more crimes.

The live scan machine not only does finger and palm prints, but it also captures mugshots to be stored with the State of Michigan.