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Posted on 11/21/2006 10:50:39 PM PST by Stoat
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Motorists pulled over by police face the threat of being fingerprinted from today - further inflaming fears over the growth of the Big Brother culture.
They will be asked to use a hand-held fingerprint reader which will check their identity against the 6.5million recorded prints of crime suspects.
Although the scheme, to be tried out by ten police forces, will be voluntary at first, the Government has admitted it is considering making it compulsory.
It would work in the same way as motorists having to take a breath test to show whether they have been drinking.
Laws would be brought in which would mean criminal penalties for drivers who are stopped.
Although the scheme, to be tried out by ten and who fail to let their fingerprints be checked. The extension of fingerprinting to the roadside - at present such checks are made only on criminal suspects in police stations - comes amid growing concern at the spread of public surveillance.
Among controversial developments are the unchecked growth of a police DNA database and the Government's plans for an all-embracing identity card system which would record personal data on everyone in the country.
The growing network of information systems based on credit and store cards and the presence everywhere of CCTV cameras have also added to the general unease.
One watchdog group has already recorded Britain as the most spied-on nation in Europe. Tories warned that roadside tests must not become a means to bring the records of millions who have committed no crime on to the police National Automated Fingerprint System.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "While we have no problem with people voluntarily giving their fingerprints, this must not become a stealth gateway to storing the fingerprints of innocent people on some Government database."
Giving fingerprints at the roadside will be voluntary for motorists for now. But the safeguards provided by the Home Office will be slender.
The only guarantee that drivers are not browbeaten by officers into allowing their prints to be checked will be the police stop-and-search form, which must be completed by officers.
This includes a box in which officers record that procedures were carried out with the consent of the individual stopped.
Home Office officials said yesterday that fingerprints taken from drivers would not be recorded and would only be checked against those of criminals and suspects which are already stored on the national computer.
The Home Office's Police Information Technology Organisation said the new Project Lantern system could save more than £2.2 million a year.
If trials are successful the Government will prepare laws to make it compulsory for motorists to accept fingerprint testing. Police Minister Tony McNulty said: "This trial represents an important step forward in our commitment to ensuring we have an effective and efficient police service fully equipped for the challenges of modern policing.
"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 front line and reducing any inconvenience for innocent members of the public."
The Lantern device electronically scans the index fingers and sends an encrypted wireless transmission to the central fingerprint database.
It scans the database and identifies possible matches. PITO's head of fingerprint identification, Chris Wheeler, said: "This pilot will help us explore the accuracy and capacity issues around the device."
The first trials will begin today in Luton and will involve those suspected of motoring offences.
Other forces who will begin using the system over the next two months are British Transport Police, Essex, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, the Metropolitan Police, North Wales, Northamptonshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.
"Although the scheme, to be tried out by ten police forces, will be voluntary at first, the Government has admitted it is considering making it compulsory"
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"One watchdog group has already recorded Britain as the most spied-on nation in Europe."
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The only guarantee that drivers are not browbeaten by officers into allowing their prints to be checked will be the police stop-and-search form, which must be completed by officers.
This includes a box in which officers record that procedures were carried out with the consent of the individual stopped. "
So the British government wants to put devices in your vehicle that tell them where and how you drive, and now it wants to fingerprint pretty much every driver it can get its hands on. What is going on over there?
Shades of George Orwell...what a true shame.
It is unwise to give such power to policemen, wether here or in the UK.
Our British Friends are having an increasing level of scrutiny placed upon their lives, and the only safeguard is the Government's promise that it will all be used appropriately and kept secure.
Although you will be hard-pressed to find a more 'law and order' sort of guy, I have trouble trusting any Government with so much information....it's bound to be misused or lost or hacked.
With the increasing popularity of fingerprint passcode devices for computer systems, a fingerprint, once digitally acquired, could conceivably open many doors for the wrong person.
Once the Genie is out of the bottle, it seems that it can never be put back in.....
It is unwise to give such power to policemen, wether here or in the UK.
Agreed. This is indeed quite a milestone, but our British Friends have been pummeled by so much of this stuff that many of them may be quite used to it now...which makes it all the more sinister.
Have you ever respectfully declined to go along with a 'voluntary' test or search by the police? Say goodbye to at least the next 4 hours of your life.
Sad that the UK learned nothing from Orwell.
Stoat wrote: "Once the Genie is out of the bottle, it seems that it can never be put back in....."
Agreed. Few people realize just how rare a society like ours is in human history. Human history is full of kings, overlords, dictators, and oligarchies. Even now, most of humanity is denied the simple freedoms Americans take for granted (and are often so eager to give up!).
It's chilling but many, many people think paradise can be achieved by a government big and strong enough to encompass the entire globe. Given modern technology, George Orwell's nightmare CAN be created, and nothing short of the return of the Messiah will be able to free mankind again.
Disgusting and as transparent as our initial seatbelt laws.
Regards.
A country that so bravely stood up to the Nazi empire is now falling under a tyranny of its own making. And for what? Empty words like "safety." It says something about the socialist mentality that they but murderers in unguarded, unfenced facilities where criminals can just walk away but they take draconian measures against ordinary citizens.
the BBC doesn't appear to see anything wrong with this at all....they view it entirely as a positive step toward faster identification (of 'potential criminals')
BBC NEWS UK England Beds-Bucks-Herts Mobile fingerprint trial begins
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Mobile fingerprint trial begins
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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." |
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They forgot to work in the phrase 'for the children'. Undoubtedly that oversight will be corrected soon. That invariably gives a pass for the government to do anything at all - no politician will stand up to that.
Did you see this one:
The nursery rhyme police - parents to take lessons in reading and singing
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1739465/posts
And Mrs Hughes said the state would train a new 'parenting workforce' to ensure parents who fail to do their duty with nursery rhymes are found and 'supported'.
These items may also be of interest to readers of this thread:
Great Britain Satellites on speeders (Motorcycles' engine to be cut off via satellite - cars next)
Great Britain Drive one of these You're crass and irresponsible, says minister on warpath
I could have been anyone (Reporter breezes through airport security w-o being asked to lift veil)
My dear American friends, you need not worry as these are all Labour plans which will come to nothing when they are removed at the next election.
As we in Britain try not to judge Americans by the actions of your new democrat government, please try not to judge our country by the empty actions of our out-going Labour government.
I am waiting for fingerprinting to get to the point that we can do it at polling places. It would be the end of the democrat party as we know it.
Maybe the politicians here won't but I feel fairly confident the people will, to tell you the truth I've never in my life seen the trust between the public and the goverment so low as it is today, we're entering dangerous territory I think.
I have a little advice for our goverment over this finger printing malarky, why don't you try finger printing every foreign citizen that gets off the plane at Gatwick/Heathrow instead?? instead of targeting the innocent civilian all the time. At least you'll be putting the equipment to good use and know who's entering the country......
Those poor Brits. Although this, in and of itself, may not be that bad it is another bucket of water poured on the slippery slope. Just like the proposed ban on pointy knives would one day lead to a ban on grinding wheels.
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