Police to carry fingerprint scanners

Identity checks in the street

Mobile Fingerprints Scanners Coming 0

27 October 2008 9:01 GMT / By Katie Scott

Ten of thousands of handheld devices capable of taking fingerprint readings could soon be distributed to British policemen.

The Mobile Identification At Scene (Midas) project, which has so far costed at £30m-£40m, could soon see the average bobby able to take a fingerprint reading on the street to be able to identify someone straight away.

The move, however, is already causing concern, coming so soon after the announcements of increasingly invasive plans by the government to keep data on British citizens.

The police force has tried to allay some fears stating that the fingerprints taken by the scanners will not be stored or added to any government databases.

But the civil rights group, Liberty, emphasised that this must be the case or the police, ironically, will be breaking the law.

Gareth Crossman, Liberty's policy director, told The Guardian: "Saving time with new technology could help police performance but officers must make absolutely certain that they take fingerprints only when they suspect an individual of an offence and can't establish his identity."

The technology is being made accessible using BlackBerry-sized devices, which could, in the future, also be able to receive pictures of suspects.

The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) revealed that they could be in use in the next 18 months.

It hopes that the devices could save time - as policemen will no longer have to take suspects to a station to have their fingerprints taken.



Comments

  • great news if youve got nothing to hide then why not ,lets hope that when they catch criminals,the courts wont let them off to easily,and lets not forget we havent got the prisons to put them in ,system still a jumble! Posted by s.kordell, st athen wales U.K
  • Another person who has no clue comes out with the "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" argument to support this tyrannical plan by the globalist labour government. The same know nothings are embracing the blanket wiretaps on phonelines, and email as well as postal mail. WELCOME TO SOVIET RUSSIA !. Every government that ever launched a war on terror throughout history eventually began surveilling their own citizens and that is what is happening here. IF on the other hand you would like to live in an open prison where every move you make, every phone call you take, and every email you send is monitored by the state (because they wanna keep you safe) then fair enough but history shows that it always descends into totalitarianism.

    Posted by simon lomax, uk
  • s.kordell, how they going know who you are unless they keep the information databases ?
    nothing more then a war on us to know if we like them or want to change them nothing more then power over us .
    I got nothing to hide but wonder what they have to hide to keep eye on me 24/7
    Posted by A.hassan, wales uk
  • This is a great idea. It is very well known that many people in the UK are driving on one driving licence, as long as if or when they were pulled over, they said the details of the person who was registered and insured, then there would be no problems. Because if i said i was called Bob, and I look to be the same sort of age as the person I'm pretending to be, there is no way or reason for the policeman to doubt it. This is something that has been long needed to help prevent this from happening. Yes i can see its problems, but with 60M people living here, and many millions of illegal immigrants mixed in, i dont see how people can complain. In other parts of Europe, like Greece you have needed to give your finger prints in by law for ID cards and passports, and its never been a problem for them, so why not here!!! Posted by Ian, England
  • Ahhh yes the slippery slope to totalitarianism, how long will it be until we are told what to THINK and anyone who disagrees will be banished or ostracized from society.

    I agree totally with simon above, Prison planet here we come.

    What i would like to see is total surveillance of our politicians, "Truman show" style. Full coverage of their lives 24/7... All financial data on them should be published, Every person they meet should be disclosed and all of their dodgy deals exposed..... after all, they are elected officials and if they don't like it then are free to resign.

    We have more to fear from our own government than any so called terrorists.

    Remember - FEAR IS A MIND KILLER.......
    Posted by Marty Campbell, uk
  • Why stop at fingerprints? Surely roadside DNA testing is the way to go? What about chip implants? Convenient, time saving and cost effective.

    'If you've done nothing wrong then you've got nothing to worry about'
    Really? Who decides what's wrong? S. Kordell and Ian? Dixon of Dock Green? Sir Ian Blair and Cressida Dick? Team BNP?

    Do you really trust the police? Will you really trust their (even more authoritarian) successors?

    No need for more prisons in the Panopticon society.
    Posted by Jorge Raphael Videla, Caseros, Buenos Aires

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