TCSO hopes to solve cases using shoeprint technology

TULARE, Calif. (KFSN) -- There's a new piece of equipment at the Tulare County Sheriff's Office Pre-Trial Facility.

All inmates processed at booking will now step on a footwear scanner, recording a detailed image of the outsoles of their shoes.

At crime scenes, sheriff's investigators will upload images of shoeprints to a database.

The idea is they will get a match, and identify a suspect, or possibly even link that suspect to other crimes.

"The technology is amazing," said Tulare County Sheriff's Captain Rob Schimpf. "It actually goes as far as to identifying wear marks in particular footwear or different images that might have identifying features in that particular shoe track that lead to a suspect in particular."

Schimpf says shoeprints or tracks have always been a key piece of evidence in investigations.

But this technology is a step up from the methods they used before.

"It's going to be quick, it's going to be accurate," Schimpf said. "It's going to compile cases. It's going to put a lot of cases together that may have in traditional times gone unnoticed."

The sheriff's office purchased the technology from Virginia-based Evident for around $10,000.

Schimpf says they're the first law enforcement agency in the country to start using it.