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Police to fingerprint on streets
No two fingerprints have ever been found to be identical on databases
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.
Combat false identities
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
Chris Wheeler
Police Information Technology Organisation
"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.
Electronic safeguards
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.
FINGERPRINTS
Argentine police officer Juan Vucetich made the first positive criminal fingerprint identification in 1892
Six years earlier fingerprinting pioneer Scotsman Dr Henry Faulds offered the concept to the Met Police
The UK's first fingerprint bureau was founded in Scotland Yard in 1901 with the help of Indian experts
No two fingerprints have ever been found to be identical in many billions of human and automated computer comparisons
Inspector Steve Rawlings, based in Luton, said it takes two sets of fingerprints and the fingerprints are not retained.
"The encounter can be 15 minutes on the roadside rather than three hours in the police station," he said.
The device has an accuracy of 94-95% and will be used for identification purposes only, say police, and there are electronic safeguards to prevent misuse.
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.
Mark Wallace, who represents the civil liberties group, the Freedom Association told BBC Radio Five Live that he had "concerns" about the scheme.
"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."
Police to fingerprint on streets
No two fingerprints have ever been found to be identical on databases
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.
Combat false identities
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
Chris Wheeler
Police Information Technology Organisation
"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.
Electronic safeguards
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.
FINGERPRINTS
Argentine police officer Juan Vucetich made the first positive criminal fingerprint identification in 1892
Six years earlier fingerprinting pioneer Scotsman Dr Henry Faulds offered the concept to the Met Police
The UK's first fingerprint bureau was founded in Scotland Yard in 1901 with the help of Indian experts
No two fingerprints have ever been found to be identical in many billions of human and automated computer comparisons
Inspector Steve Rawlings, based in Luton, said it takes two sets of fingerprints and the fingerprints are not retained.
"The encounter can be 15 minutes on the roadside rather than three hours in the police station," he said.
The device has an accuracy of 94-95% and will be used for identification purposes only, say police, and there are electronic safeguards to prevent misuse.
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.
Mark Wallace, who represents the civil liberties group, the Freedom Association told BBC Radio Five Live that he had "concerns" about the scheme.
"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."
