Mobile fingerprint trial begins

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Police trials have started of an electronic hand-held fingerprint reader which allows officers to identify potential suspects on the spot.

The device, called Lantern, can search 6.5 million fingerprints and the trial aims to give a result in five minutes.

Police in Luton and Bedfordshire are the first to use the reader.

British Transport Police, the Met, and the Essex, Herts, Lancs, North Wales, Northants, West Midlands and West Yorks forces will take part in the pilot.

Save time

Fingerprints can only be taken from the public voluntarily using the Lantern system because the law would have to be changed for officers to be able to force people to give prints on the street.

The reader searches the National Automated Fingerprint System and it is hoped it will save police time, and more than £2.2m a year.

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."

Chris Wheeler, Head of fingerprint identification at the Home Office's Police Information Technology Organisation (Pito), said: "This pilot will help us explore the accuracy and capacity issues around the device in a live scenario."