Tag: Fingerprint Scans

Bridge Day Panel Gives Jumpers Option to Fingerprint Scans

Bridge Day organizers have approved an optional security measure to address privacy concerns about fingerprint scans.

The Bridge Day Commission plans to require BASE jumpers, rappellers and vendors to submit to the scans. The fingerprints will be checked against a terrorism watch list.

The Register-Herald reports that the commission on Wednesday added the option of a paid background check. The fingerprint scans will be free.

Commission chairwoman Sharon Cruikshanks says background checks would be conducted by a third-party security company.

Bridge Day is the only time that BASE jumping is allowed from the New River Gorge Bridge. Some jumpers have said they will skip this year’s event because of the fingerprint scans.

BASE stands for building, antenna, span and Earth, the fixed objects from which jumpers leap with parachutes.

Bridge Day Panel OKs Finger Scans, Jumpers Protest

  The Bridge Day Commission has decided to require BASE jumpers, reppellers and vendors to undergo finger scans.

Commission members voted unanimously on Wednesday to require the scans. Commission members say the scans are less intrusive than the one-day festival’s current background checks.

Several jumpers criticized the requirement during the meeting’s public comment segment. Marcus Ellison of Fayetteville said jumpers feel insulted by the requirement.

Alan Lewis of Tennessee is organizing an alternative event in Twin Falls, Idaho, where jumping off the Perrine Bridge is allowed year-round. He says Twin Falls welcomes jumpers, while there’s an adversarial relationship between Bridge Day jumpers and West Virginia State police.

BASE stands for building, antenna, span and Earth, the fixed objects from which jumpers leap with a parachute.

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