Roadside Fingerprint Checks: Big Brother Just Got Bigger

[THETRUTHWILLSETU3]

On-the-spot roadside identity checks to be carried out

Fingerprint checking devices are to be utilised by police at the roadside in a pilot initiative to check identities on the spot.

Some ten forces across England and Wales will be implementing the new measure, which cancels out the need to take suspected offenders to a police station to check their identity.

The devices will be used to target motorists who get stopped by the police's automatic number plate recognition teams.

British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police Service will be using the device, along with forces in Bedfordshire, Essex, Lancashire and West Yorkshire, among others.

Inspector Steve Rawlings, based in Luton, told the BBC that the handheld equipment takes two sets of fingerprints and does not store the scanned image.

"The encounter can be 15 minutes on the roadside rather than three hours in the police station," he said.

The Police Information Technology Organisation said that the device could save police forces £2.2 million per year in resources currently used trailing false identities.


Can anybody eleborate further on this? ---I don't get it

If your fingerprints aren't currently on record then how can they be matched? If there is no record you would presumably still have to take your documents down to the station

[adam1]

How about this:

You "[i]get stopped by the police's automatic number plate recognition teams"

This suggests that the stops will be selective: ex-cons or offenders will be checked, or similar, ie. persons who have already been fingerprinted.
Otherwise it don't make sense.
THe image won't be stored? Yeah right!

[alwun]

The possibility emerges here of a backdoor method of expanding the police database of fingerprints, without having to go to the trouble and expense of actually arresting you as a perp or potential perp. We are reassured that if nothing is amiss, then you can ask for the prints to be deleted on the spot. In which case the plod will brandish his gadget, press delete and offer you his empty screen as verification of his good intentions. So nothing to worry about there, is there?

[jason67]

[foliagecop]

It's interesting that the fact that this is a completely voluntary scheme has been so underplayed. When I read the first article about mobile fingerprinting that came out at the start of the week, the fact that you had to give your permission was quite prominent. Now, in the BBC website article about using it on motorists, it's relegated to the phrase " - with their permission - " stuck in the middle of a paragraph.

Would it be too cynical of me to wonder when and where the lines will start becoming blurred? How long will it take for the phrase "with their permission" to be dropped altogether and quietly forgotten. Because, coming at it from a purely business point of view, if you have a product that will save you over £2m a year if used correctly, but save you NOTHING (thereby rendering the product utterly redundant) if the customer says 'no', no company in their right mind would release it on to the market. There is simply too much risk involved.

Why hasn't this been pointed out yet?

Or is the case that the public WILL give their permission, because the alternative (whatever that may be, whether it's been thought up yet or not) would be far worse? In which case we have to ask: what else is in the works?

[flamesong]

Firstly, if the file containing your fingerprint (only the index print is taken) is transmitted to a central computer for verification - a copy has already been made. Once this has happened there is no way of tracing the security of the file. Beep! Yes, they say, it has been deleted. Course it has!

Secondly, Tony McNulty made it clear on Radio Four that yes, one can refuse to provide a print but the legislation has been constructed such that if people take advantage of this option it can be made mandatory without so much as a parliamentary vote. Not unlike the voluntary identity card!

[Thermate]

They only say its deleted from the PDA