Law student was detained by Chicago PD in the Cook Co. Jail for a week before a fingerprint check revealed they had the wrong individual. The PD was unrepentant "We did what we were supposed to do --- hold him--- but it took longer than would have liked to confirm his identity" said the PD spokesman.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/stolen-Identity-Leads-to-Mistaken-Arrest-55001292.html

There is no possible way that a fingerprint check of a college student should take a week. I would guess that the PD was nonchalant because "legally" they had 30 days to hold the young man. The ChicagoPD may say we are a large city with a lot of crime as a reason for the slow response, but that should not be the case. Another excuse might be they wanted to compare prints from the agency that put out the want again in today's digital world not an excuse. NYC has a 24 hr. time frame from arrest to arraignment, 3 hr's is allocated to capturing and getting a response on the arrest fingerprint card. What this means is that if this had happened in NYC the fingerprints would have been through the state and FBI fingerprint systems with the results in less than 3 hr's, most cards take less than 1 hr. If the hold up was with a comparison with prints held by another agency a simple e-mail with just 1 finger attached at 500 dpi could have been used to determine if it was the wanted individual.

If the young man was detained over a weekend it could be justified but a week is to much, I guess Chicago PD is not a community policing organization.

Bob McAuley
Dir. Operations/Training
Forensic Biometric Identification Solutions LLC.