New Tech Makes it Harder To Skip Jail By Using a Phony Name
Categories: Crime
A year ago, it was possible to get busted for a crime but evade jail time by getting booked under a phony name, according to a lawsuit we reported on Thursday.
Sadly, that sort of gambit's now harder thanks to a recent overhaul of the jail's prisoner-identification systems.
San Francisco's Luke Smith claims in a new lawsuit to have done time in county jail last year after a friend of his falsely claimed to be Luke Smith when arrested by police.
The phony Smith -- who is described in the city's response to the lawsuit as "Eduardo Campos aka Eddie Clark" -- skipped out on "Luke Smith's" court date, leading police to erroneously arrest and jail the real Smith.
The San Francisco Sheriff's department declined to comment on Smith' pending $100,000 civil complaint. But irrespective of the Smith Case's specifics, Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Eileen Hirst assured us that, since a Dec. 2009 systems overhaul, the jail is now better equipped to ensure inmates are who they claim.
"Since the allegation in this case happened, we have gone live with a new jail management system that replaces the 1968 era booking system we were using before," Hirst said. "One of the benefits of the new jail management system is vastly improved ability to do everything in the booking process, and in the core functions of running a jail. And identification is one of those."
One of the more amazing aspects of the Luke Smith case is the allegation that back in May 2009, when Eduardo Campos, AKA phony Luke Smith, was booked into the San Francisco City & County jail, the real Luke Smith happened to already be an inmate there.
Having booked the real Luke Smith first, jailers, naturally, had a mug shot. But they purportedly didn't consult it when booking Campos AKA "Luke Smith."
"In this case, there were photos of Luke Smith," said real Luke Smith's attorney, Che Hashim. "If you wanted to, you could have picked up on the fact they didn't look alike."
Thanks to the jail's technological overhaul, however, it's now harder for imposters to pretend they're somebody who they look nothing like.
"One improvement is that, now, when someone is being booked, if that person has been in custody before, it will trigger the bringing up a photo of that person each time they've been in custody," said Hirst. "So there's been a big improvement in retrieval of booking photos"
Another improvement we'd like to see: the real Luke Smith using better discretion when choosing friends.
Follow us on Twitter at @TheSnitchSF and @SFWeekly
Sadly, that sort of gambit's now harder thanks to a recent overhaul of the jail's prisoner-identification systems.
San Francisco's Luke Smith claims in a new lawsuit to have done time in county jail last year after a friend of his falsely claimed to be Luke Smith when arrested by police.
The phony Smith -- who is described in the city's response to the lawsuit as "Eduardo Campos aka Eddie Clark" -- skipped out on "Luke Smith's" court date, leading police to erroneously arrest and jail the real Smith.
The San Francisco Sheriff's department declined to comment on Smith' pending $100,000 civil complaint. But irrespective of the Smith Case's specifics, Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Eileen Hirst assured us that, since a Dec. 2009 systems overhaul, the jail is now better equipped to ensure inmates are who they claim.
"Since the allegation in this case happened, we have gone live with a new jail management system that replaces the 1968 era booking system we were using before," Hirst said. "One of the benefits of the new jail management system is vastly improved ability to do everything in the booking process, and in the core functions of running a jail. And identification is one of those."
One of the more amazing aspects of the Luke Smith case is the allegation that back in May 2009, when Eduardo Campos, AKA phony Luke Smith, was booked into the San Francisco City & County jail, the real Luke Smith happened to already be an inmate there.
Having booked the real Luke Smith first, jailers, naturally, had a mug shot. But they purportedly didn't consult it when booking Campos AKA "Luke Smith."
"In this case, there were photos of Luke Smith," said real Luke Smith's attorney, Che Hashim. "If you wanted to, you could have picked up on the fact they didn't look alike."
Thanks to the jail's technological overhaul, however, it's now harder for imposters to pretend they're somebody who they look nothing like.
"One improvement is that, now, when someone is being booked, if that person has been in custody before, it will trigger the bringing up a photo of that person each time they've been in custody," said Hirst. "So there's been a big improvement in retrieval of booking photos"
Another improvement we'd like to see: the real Luke Smith using better discretion when choosing friends.
Follow us on Twitter at @TheSnitchSF and @SFWeekly
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