Police in UK will reportedly be issued with mobile fingerprint scanners so they can check peoples' identities in the street.The hand-held devices are no bigger than a BlackBerry smartphone and will apparently be issued to every police force in the UK under a scheme called Mobile Identification At Scene (Midas).
They will enable officers to scan suspects' fingerprints on the spot and compare them against records on the police national biometric database, Ident1.
It is claimed the scanners will save police time and cut the number of wrongful arrests.
Currently, officers have to take suspects to custody suites to check their fingerprints - a procedure that takes an average of 67 minutes.
Details of the hand-held technology, which may ultimately be able to receive pictures of suspects, were revealed at a conference presentation by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NIPA).
The devices are expected to be in widespread use within 18 months.
I was trying to find out a bit more about these devices; which technology they use and how is the data transferred over the air but no luck. Any information would be useful.
