New fingerprint scanners identify suspects in 60 seconds

NEW portable fingerprint scanners employed by police officers have been quoted as “breathtakingly invasive” in behalf of civil liberties advocates.

The Home Office declared on Monday that the police is in preparation of getting 250 of the scanners that can specify suspects within a minute.

The scanners which be distributed to 20 other police forces within the year, link to a smartphone app and cross reference fingerprints with police and immigration databases.

Liberty‘s Emma Norton believes the government have ‘sneaked’ through this use of technology without any parliamentary debate.

She said: “There’s no recognition of how breathtakingly invasive this proposal is. There is no discussion of consent.

Or of the importance of legal advice before people should be asked to hand over this kind of information about themselves. Or what may happen if someone declines a request.”