Police to fingerprint on streets

[BGonaSTICK]

Police across England and Wales are to begin taking fingerprints while on patrol using mobile electronic devices.

The portable gadgets - similar to a pocket PC and linked to a database of 6.5m prints - will enable officers to identify suspects within minutes.

Police say they will particularly help identify people using false identities. Bedfordshire will be the first of 10 forces to pilot the machines.

But concerns have been raised about civil liberties.

The equipment will be distributed among the forces in Essex, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, North Wales, Northamptonshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire, as well as to British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police, over the next two months.

Police Minister Tony McNulty said: "The new technology will speed up the time it takes for police to identify individuals at the roadside, enabling them to spend more time on the frontline and reducing any inconvenience for innocent members of the public."

Under the pilot, codenamed Lantern, police officers will be able to check the fingerprints from both index fingers of the suspect - with their permission - against a central computer database, with a response within a few minutes.

It's a first to search a national database and get a response back in a couple of minutes.

"The handheld, capture device is little bigger than a PDA," said Chris Wheeler, head of fingerprint identification at the Police Information Technology Organisation PITO.

"Screening on the street means they [police] can check an identity and verify it.

"And if they verify it on the street and the person is currently not wanted by anyone but is known to the system for a reason - that is sufficient for fixed penalty notices."

Currently an officer has to arrest a person and take them to a custody suite to fingerprint them.

The device will be used with the Automatic Number Plate Recognition team, who identify vehicles of interest.

If a vehicle is stopped, police will be able to identify the driver and passengers. At present about 60 per cent of drivers stopped do not give their true identity.

A full video report - well worth watching - is available here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm

So not really voluntary at all then?

[nanochickin]

I have a big problem with the police, especially the traffic ones. >

There is no way that i would voluntarily give my finger prints to those cretins.

This is definately an abuse of civil liberties in my opinion and i ain't having any of it. >

Why don't we just vote in the communists and be done with it. :roflmao:

Papers please :roflmao:

[BGonaSTICK]

Right now I'd vote in anyone to get rid of this bunch of jokers, but I fear that as usual, they're all the bloody same underneath the smarmy exterior.