The Metropolitan Police Service is giving mobile fingerprint scanners to its officers, to use on those suspected of or wanted for criminal offences.
On Wednesday the Met announced that it was deploying 350 of the ‘MobileID’ devices in the boroughs of Lewisham, Lambeth, Southwark, Newham, Westminster, Tower Hamlets, Brent, Croydon, Islington, Camden, Hackney and Haringey.
“Mobile Identification is a technological step forward that helps police officers identify people quickly,” assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said in a statement. “Evidence has shown that a full identification arrest can tie up both the subject and the police officer for several hours. Even a traditional identity check conducted on the street can take an extended period of time to complete.”
Checks with MobileID devices, by way of contrast, take between 30 seconds and two minutes. According to the Met, the devices check the suspect’s fingerprints against the national database but do not retain them after that check has taken place.
“MobileID is effective particularly in revealing serious and violent offenders who will do everything they can to prevent the police from knowing their true identities,” Rowley continued. “This technology means there is increased officer time spent on patrol, and as a result, helps to make communities safer.”
The deployment is part of a wider scheme kicked off by the soon-to-be-abolished National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) last July. London’s police service has already trialled the phone-sized MobileID devices during roadside checks, the Notting Hill Carnival and the policing of the Royal Wedding.
The mobile fingerprint scanners were part of the MPS Commissioner’s commitment to “making better use of technology to fight crime”.
Last week they announced the use of mobile technology to pull date from mobile phones on the spot.
Privacy watchdog Privacy International said pushing forensics processes from the laboratory to the street was a possible breach of human rights law because it could be used to extract data before an arrest was made.
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