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Subject: Police trial mobile fingerprint ID machines

Author: Bob

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 13:35:35 11/24/06 Fri Bedfordshire police are the first force to trial new equipment which will allow them to take and match fingerprints of motorists. Ten authorities are being distributed with the mobile equipment, which is linked to a database of 6.5 million prints. Officers will scan a vehicle's number plates using a special camera that checks if the car is subject to an offence. If the driver does not convince police he is giving them a correct name, they will fingerprint him and verify his identity on the spot, instead of taking him to the police station. 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." However, despite promises that the prints will not be kept on file, civil liberties organisations have expressed concerns. Mark Wallace of civil liberties group the Freedom Association said "I don't think we should be reassured by the fact that at the moment it's voluntary and at the moment they won't be recorded," he said "Both of those things are actually only happening in the trial because the laws haven't been passed to do this on a national basis compulsorily and with recording." Forces in Essex, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, North Wales, Northamptonshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire, as well as to British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police will be supplied with the equipment over the next two months. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]