The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 20: Internal Security and Public Safety

Chapter 203: Voluntary Fingerprinting

• § 4601. Purpose

  It is the purpose of this chapter to allow State and local law enforcement agencies to assist in providing fingerprint records of minors to their parents or guardians who so request and to ensure the classifiability of the fingerprints so taken. (Added 1985, No. 27.)

• § 4602. Authority to take fingerprints of minors

  (a) Subject to the conditions set forth in subsection (b) of this section, any State or local law enforcement agency may establish or participate in a program of voluntary fingerprinting of minors. Only minors whose parents or guardians request the same shall be fingerprinted under the provisions of this chapter.

  (b) A law enforcement officer shall not take the fingerprints of a minor as a part of a program of voluntary fingerprinting unless he or she has, within the past three years, received training approved by the Vermont Criminal Justice Council in the taking of classifiable fingerprints as certified by the Vermont Criminal Justice Council.

  (c) Any law enforcement agency participating in a program of voluntary fingerprinting of minors shall ensure that fingerprints are taken in such manner and with such materials and equipment as to ensure their classifiability and their use under the Federal Missing Children Act, 28 U.S.C. § 534. (Added 1985, No. 27.)

• § 4603. Ownership of fingerprint records

  (a) No law enforcement officer or agency shall make or retain duplicates of fingerprint cards or records taken as a part of a program of voluntary fingerprinting.

  (b) Fingerprint cards and records created under this chapter shall be given to the parents or guardians of the minor to be held for the benefit of the minor. Such cards and records shall become the property of the person fingerprinted when he or she attains the age of majority.

  (c) Fingerprint cards and records created under this chapter shall not be used against the person fingerprinted in any criminal or other judicial proceeding and all cards and records shall prominently state this limitation on their use. (Added 1985, No. 27.)

• § 4604. Exclusions

  (a) Nothing in this chapter prohibits any person from fingerprinting any other person by a method not authorized by this chapter. However, this chapter provides the only sanctioned method by which law enforcement agencies and officers may take fingerprints of minors pursuant to a program of voluntary fingerprinting of minors.

  (b) No law enforcement agency or officer is required by this chapter to take the fingerprints of any minor if doing so would be unreasonably difficult or impossible or would create an undue burden on the law enforcement agency or officer. (Added 1985, No. 27.)