Drivers to give Sussex Police the finger?

A pilot scheme, which uses a mobile fingerprinting device to confirm the identity of drivers pulled over by Police suspected of providing false details, has been launched on the roads of Sussex.

The portable gadget, codenamed Lantern, is roughly the size of a chip and pin machine, captures images of the subject’s index fingers and checks them against the National Fingerprint Database, which holds about 6 million profiles of people who have been arrested, charged or convicted for any offence that could result in a prison sentence. Six of the handheld appliances are currently being tested by Sussex Police.

“The device, capable of doing what would normally take 3 hours in just 5 minutes, is thought to be 95% accurate, and electronic safeguards are said to be in place to prevent misuse.”

Police claim the new technology reduces the need to arrest or detain people at Police stations for identification purposes. Speaking in support of the scheme, 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.”

An initial 18-month trial period, amongst selected constabularies across the country, showed average time savings of around 30 minutes per case. In Yorkshire, of those checked, 60% were not on the fingerprint database and arrests occurred in just over 16% of the cases analysed. Concerns were also raised over the disproportionately high number of people stopped who belonged to ethnic minority groups.

The device, capable of doing what would normally take 3 hours in just 5 minutes, is to be utilised when Police become suspicious of the identity of an individual pulled over. It is thought to be 95% accurate, and electronic safeguards are said to be in place to prevent misuse. The encrypted data is transmitted to the national ID system using GPRS – a wireless system provided by Cable & Wireless, under secure connectivity.

The Serious Organized Crime and Police Act of 2005 ensures that fingerprints taken from a person under these circumstances ‘must be destroyed as soon as they have fulfilled the purpose for which they were taken.’ This has aroused suspicion amongst civil rights sceptics who are dubious about the lack of an independent audit monitoring the destruction of these fingerprint images and of their derived digital fingerprint minutiae. The Act also gives the power to take fingerprints without consent when there is reasonable suspicion. Previously consent was required.

The National Pilot of Lantern devices indicated the average time saved by Police Officers was 73 minutes and it has been suggested that a number of notable arrests have been made since the deployment began, particularly of disqualified drivers presenting false details. The positive reading of these statistics, along with the continued piloting of the devices, appears to signal intent to employ further devices and another scheme (Project Midas) is also testing mobile fingerprint scanners for Officers on the beat.