13 Feb Mobile Fingerprint Scanners Now Used by UK Police on Patrol
It was recently reported that police officers in the UK are now using a mobile fingerprinting system for identity checking on the street. The scanner is said to be able to search a database with 12 million records and confirm an individual’s name, date of birth and other identifying information in less than a minute.
According to Clive Poulton who helped develop the project at the Home Office, the system will only be used in the event that the officer does not have any other means to identify the individual. The system will be querying the IDENT1 database, which has the fingerprints of those who had been taken into police custody, and the IABS, which contains the fingerprints of non-UK citizens in the country. The Home Office assured that people who have been fingerprinted will have their details deleted from the device automatically as soon as the search has been done.
Source: Wired
