The National Policing Improvement Agency is rolling out new mobile fingerprinting devices to police forces across England and Wales. These devices will allow officers on the beat to check an individual's identity within two minutes, even if the person is unconscious.
The new Mobile Identification (Mobile ID) service allows fingerprints to be scanned and checked against the national fingerprint database, known as IDENT1. Information is encrypted and sent wirelessly. Already more than half of all Police forces in England and Wales have started using MobileID this year, including British Transport Police and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency.
Tom McArthur, NPIA Director of Operations, said “Identification is crucial to police investigations and giving officers the ability to do this on-the-spot within minutes is giving them more time to spend working in their communities, helping to fight crime, bringing more offenders to justice and better protecting the public.”