This is only for criminal traffic stops, in other words, people the officer already has the discretion to haul off to jail, which would include fingerprinting anyway. The Sherriff is just making it policy to do part of what he already has legal authority to do.
If he tried to do this for civil traffic stops (speeding, rolling a stop, etc.,) I'd be yelling louder than anyone on here.
It's more "papers please" nonsense from a well documented authoritarian psycho. If he wants someone's fingerprints, then I guess he had better arrest them. Otherwise, he has no business doing this. The ACLU is dead on with this guy. I hope they take him down.
A traffic stop is a traffic stop. This does not make any sense. As you say if it is a criminal traffic stop then the guy is already going to jail so who cares. But me thinks that they are actually talking about civil stops.
I tend to side with law enforcement on these vehicle issues as roads are public property and the ability to operate a motor vehicle is regulated.
If the initial traffic stop was legal then verifying the identity of the driver before issuing a ticket is a legitimate law enforcement practice. Pulling people over just to check their prints on the other hand would be clearly unconstitutional.