Are Transaction Control Numbers (TCN) assigned to defendants by the jail or by the court?
An 18-character Transaction Control Number (TCN) is assigned each time a person is involved in a reportable fingerprinting event (i.e., an arrest, jail booking, or jail commitment). The Washington State Patrol (WSP) assigns the numbers in blocks by county to each jail, detention center, and law enforcement agency. The TCNs are pre-printed on the fingerprint cards and disposition reports provided by the WSP to the agencies as well as on self-adhesive TCN labels. If an agency has a live-scan fingerprinting system, the WSP assigns them a block of TCNs for the live-scan to generate for each fingerprint event. If a fingerprint is submitted to the WSP without a TCN, the agency is contacted and set up with TCN packets (fingerprint cards, disposition reports, and labels).
When the court receives a new criminal case, a disposition report with a TCN may be attached to the filing or a TCN label may be affixed to one of the filing documents. When a case has a TCN recorded in JIS, SCOMIS or Odyssey, its disposition is electronically transmitted to the WSP. This eliminates the need for the court to manually complete and submit the pink disposition report forms to the WSP.
An information document from WSP regarding TCN numbers is attached to the bottom of this answer.
See also:
- Courts of Limited Jurisdiction: Answer: PCN recording and transmission process for CLJ courts.
- Superior Courts: Answer: PCN recording and transmission process for superior courts.
- JIS Release Note, June 4, 2021: Process Control Number (PCN) changes for WSP Modernization Implementation
Effective June 2021, the nine-digit Process Control Number (PCN) was changed to an 18-character Transaction Control Number (TCN).
Attachment:
Transaction Control Number Guidelines.pdf
RN id: 765