Police to fingerprint on streets

From the BBC.

Wednesday, 22 November 2006

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, although fingerprints can be taken only if a person gives permission. Ten forces, starting with Beds, will pilot the machines over the next year. The equipment will be also 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 against a central computer database, with a response within a few 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. He continued: "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.

Bedfordshire Police is the first force to rollout the trial. 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. The device has an accuracy of 94-95% and will be used for identification purposes only. It sends encrypted data to the national ID system using GPRS - a wireless system used by many mobile phones. More than 6.5 million fingerprints are cross-referenced and sent back to the officer. "It's a first to search a national database and get a response back in a couple of minutes," said Mr Wheeler. The information on the device is encrypted and there are electronic safeguards to prevent misuse, if the machine was lost or stolen.

Electronic "live scan" machines used in police stations remain the principal method for fingerprinting suspects for evidence. Live scan machines have a 99.5% accuracy rate and are used in conjunction with a fingerprint expert. "We have a national programme which will mean by the middle of January 2007 every custody suite in England and Wales and most in Scotland will have a live scan unit installed," said Mr Wheeler. He likened the mobile device to breathalysers used by officers on patrol. "It's simply a screening device. It's the same as using a breathalyser on the street and using a calibrated one back at the station." PITO provides technology such as the National Automated Fingerprint ID System, called Ident1, to the police.

[..and another tool enters the armoury of a potential Police State with hardly a ripple. I wonder how long before the fingerprinting becomes compulsory and they are kept – for record purposes only of course – on the police database? Not long I’m guessing.]