The idea was proposed at the April 29 meeting in response to disagreement over whether a new Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) would have prevented the abduction. The bounty hunters claimed Santana was Claudia Rincon, wanted for embezzlement.

"The purchase of this equipment is a preventative measure to make sure an incident like what occurred in 2005 doesn't happen again," said Councilman John Genovesi.

Though an ordinance has yet to be introduced or drafted, Mayor John Hipp spelled out what the ordinance should require. Bounty hunters, he said, would be required to report to police headquarters and present information about the suspect they're seeking as well as the warrant from the issuing jurisdiction. Officers would then accompany the bounty hunter to arrest the suspect and bring him or her back to headquarters for positive identification with the AFIS system before the bounty hunter could return the suspect to the jurisdiction.

"I think [such an ordinance] would finally and fully address what happened in 2005," said Hipp. "As Mrs. Santana rightfully complained, 'What's being done to protect the citizens?' That's what we're trying to do."

Hipp said the borough needs to be careful drafting the ordinance because of protections afforded bounty hunters by federal protections and state common law. He thinks Rutherford could be the first municipality in New Jersey and possibly one of the few in the country to establish such an ordinance. Nevertheless, he said he hopes for it to be introduced in June.

Council members Maura Keyes and Joseph Sommer argued the machine would not necessarily have prevented the officers involved from making misjudgments.

"It is outrageous to say at this point in time that this machine would have stopped what happened that night," said Keyes.

The ordinance, which unanimously passed its first reading, appropriates $27,695 for the police department to buy an AFIS machine and a listening device for use in surveillance. A nearly identical ordinance for $31,700 was voted down 2-4 on March 25. Sommer and Keyes, two of the council members who voted against the ordinance, said their objection wasn't to the machine but to what they claimed was the lack of information provided prior to the vote. It wasn't on the previous week's work session agenda and was only added by Genovesi at the beginning of the March 25 meeting.

"If time had permitted me to ask my questions during the work session regarding cost and why our current shared services arrangement with Lyndhurst—which is documented in court papers—was inadequate, I would have been able to support [Genovesi's] motion in full chambers," said Sommer in a letter sent to the South Bergenite the day after the vote. Genovesi later noted that the borough doesn't have a shared service agreement with Lyndhurst to use its AFIS machine; rather, the department occasionally requests to do so and is usually allowed, but the machine belongs solely to Lyndhurst and Rutherford officers aren't trained in its use.

The AFIS machine allows police to search through state and federal databases for a fingerprint match in a matter of minutes or hours as opposed to the weeks or months it takes to get ink and paper prints. Suspects' prints would be recorded by pressing their hands on a touch screen that captures a digital image and cross-checks it with electronic databases. The original proposal was for a stationary machine and a portable one to be placed in the patrol captain's car. The amount to be appropriated dropped by $4,000 in April because the department decided just to get the stationary device.