POWAY -- Skateboarders soon may have to register and be fingerprinted before using the Poway Skate Park.

A new turnstile would unlock only after a scanner read and recognized the thumbprint of anyone who wanted to enter, said Poway Community Services Director Robert Clark of the city's plan to curb vandalism and misbehavior at the park. Use of the park would still be free.

The system already is employed in parking lots, gyms and other facilities, but this may be the first time it would be used at a skate park, Clark said.

"To our knowledge, no one has this," Clark said. "If this works, you'll see a lot of cities jumping on this fast."

The City Council heard the proposal Tuesday but delayed a decision to allow staffers time to answer technical questions raised at the meeting. Clark said he does not know when the item will return to the council.

The preliminary cost of the turnstile and upgraded security cameras would be $50,000, according to the staff report.

Clark said the renovations would help the city monitor who is using the park. City Hall would maintain a database of the names, ages and fingerprints of people who register to use the park, he said. That information, with an upgraded camera system monitoring the park, will help keep skaters on their best behavior even when no one else is around, Clark said.

Besides keeping out those who want to deface the park, the turnstile also would make it difficult for people to bring in bicycles, which Clark said can damage the park's concrete surface.

The thumbprint scanner could be used to bar people caught vandalizing or misbehaving at the park, and it also could be programmed to allow only skaters of certain ages to use the park at specific times, Clark said. Sometimes younger skaters who are intimidated by older skaters will use local shopping centers, parking lots of basketball courts instead, Clark said, adding that designated skating times could keep the youngsters off those sites and get them back in the park.

Poway's skate park closes at 8 p.m. and is the only one in the area that is lighted and unsupervised at night. With the Rancho Penasquitos Skate Park closed for repairs and others closed after dusk, more out-of-towners have been using the Poway park recently, according to the staff report. Clark said the turnstile and upgraded cameras will decrease late-night loitering and drug and alcohol use that has been noticed near the park.

Some skateboarders at the park on Thursday were not keen on the idea of being fingerprinted.

"I think fingerprinting is going too far," said Poway resident Aaron Anderson, 27. Anderson said he didn't think the turnstile would be effective against stopping graffiti, anyway. "It'll make people resent it, and they'll go back to the street. It's a public park and it should be public."

But Anderson did agree that age restrictions at specific times would be good at the park.

Poway resident Jonathan Malvaney said the turnstile would anger skateboarders, and brothers Shabir and Masud Raofi of Rancho Bernardo said they had their own doubts about the system.

"It's a bad idea," said Masud Raofi, 19. "They've got cameras already. And how much will it cost? There's got to be hidden fees."

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.