Malfunction impacting New York state system for identifying criminals

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A technical malfunction in the New York state electronic database used to positively identify individuals who are arrested, through fingerprinting and other related means, is causing headaches for law enforcement agencies across the state.

A spokesperson with the Division of Criminal Justice Services confirmed The Statewide Automated Biometric Identification System went down Wednesday at around 1 p.m.

Law enforcement officials in New York City confirmed the outage has slowed efforts to positively identify individuals who are arrested resulting in delays to arraignments.

Sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed "work arounds" are being utilized to ensure no offenders are incorrectly released due to the system outage.

Sources added that information which could usually be processed quickly must now be done manually.

"The system is currently processing priority transactions to ensure that all necessary parties, including the courts, have all of the information they need. We are working to restore the system to fully operational status as soon as possible," said a Division spokesperson, adding that employees are working around the clock to fix the problem.