Photos: Cops use tech to point the finger of suspicion

A recent trial, Project Lantern, saw about 200 scanners - seen here - used to take roadside scans from suspects to be checked against the police national biometric database, Ident1.

The trial has been running for 18 months in a number of forces and fingerprint scanners will now be rolled out across the UK as part of Project Midas.

It is estimated the mobile fingerprinting system saves about 67 minutes per search and if it were scaled to a national level, as planned under Midas, it would be equivalent to having an extra 336 officers on the beat, the NPIA says.

During Project Lantern, the system was used alongside automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems checks to verify the identity of people in vehicles flagged up as of interest to the police.

According to Geoff Whitaker, CTO of biometrics for the NPIA, speaking at Biometrics Conference 2008, 60 per cent of drivers stopped for an ANPR check have tried to give false details to the police.

Photo credit: NPIA