Cops on the spot fingerprinting

[Sparkologist]

I don't see what the fuss is about. When I went to see Uncle Sam, earlier this summer, I had a fingerprint scan taken at Atlanta airport. In this case, it can match me up to my passport. If it goes missing, no one else can fraudulently using it.

As said previously: if you are a scrote with previous form and a history of mis-demeanors, start worrying. If you lead a virtuous life and follow the path of righteousness, and generally keep your nose clean, then you've nowt to worry about.

[firefighter753]

Jambutty, firstly I would like to sympathise with you on being the victim of so much nasty crime, no one deserves that.

New technology should be used to fight crime and gather evidence of the crime and not harass the innocent law abiding person.

I was chatting to a police colleague yesterday about the machines and he assured me that the fingerprint taken is no way recorded and that if the details of the print were recorded without the owners consent, the police would be liable to all sorts of legal action for the contravention of P.A.C.E, the human rights act and also the data protection act.

The police can find the manpower when it comes to policing a state visit or a legal demonstration or a football match. But they can’t find the manpower to police the streets. The cost of all this new technology would be better served by increasing police numbers.

I asked what the advantages were of the machine, and was told - If a police officer stops someone in the street or in a vehicle at the moment and the person gives false details, the person is arrested, taken back to the police station and his details are checked. On average one person arrested for suspected of giving false details takes a police officer (usually 2) off the streets for about two hours. As most people who give false details are known to the police they will now think twice about giving false details on the streets as their identity can now be verified at the roadside in five minutes, thus saving two hours at the station, and keeping our police on the streets.

Another use of the machine is that every asylum seeker have their fingerprints and DNA taken when entering the country, so now all the illegal immigrants that have disappeared into the system can be slowly rounded up, identified instantly and the appropriate action taken.

And finally, any fingerprints taken from unsolved crimes around the country are stored on the database, so if the little scrote who burgled your house left a fingerprint it will have been recorded to your crime and put on the database. Now imagine this scenario the scrote who has never been caught so isn't known to the police, is walking down the street two months down the line three oclock in the morning , and is stopped by police, two months ago he would of given police his correct details and he would check out with no crime commited he would be released. Now its a different story the police say can you put your finger in this machine, five minutes later the machine is telling the police officer that this little scrotes fingerprint is linked to a burlary at your house and several others, and he is arrested.

The disavantage of these machines is that they are heavy.

They can harrass me as many times as they want, knowing that the next person they stop maybe the little get who burgled you.

Then they enter the judicial system which I totally agree with you about, which is a joke.

[jambutty]

Thanks for the sympathy bit firefighter753 but I got over the crimes over time.

It may well be the case today that the fingerprint is not retained but once the system is in place it would only need a new law to change this and this government, during the current Parliament, has brought in over 3,000 pieces of new legislation. It is only a matter of time before a future government passes the necessary legislation for all fingerprints to be retained on the police database. It would be next to impossible to establish that the fingerprint has not been retained.

If a police officer stops someone in the street or in a vehicle at the moment and the person gives false details, the person is arrested, taken back to the police station and his details are checked.

How does the police officer know that any details given on the street by a stranger are false?

If I got stopped on the street, was asked my name and replied Penelope Dawson the cop would rightly be suspicious because as a general rule blokes do not have girls’ names. But if I answered Henry Marsden he would have to accept it. So what use would a fingerprint check be?

All this fingerprinting stuff is just an excuse to go fishing for evidence without suspicion of a specific crime being committed. It is tantamount to fingerprinting a whole neighbourhood to try and find any known criminals and that is an invasion of civil liberties.

Look what happens today – the police arrest someone on suspicion of committing a crime, (that means they have no real evidence that would stand up in court) impound the person’s personal belonging like computers and documents and then spend time searching them for evidence to convict them with. They do that with suspected terrorists and then spend the next 28 days searching for evidence and now the government is seeking 90 days detention.

Only a very naïve burglar will leave a fingerprint when burgling a house. In all seven burglaries in my house there were no fingerprints apart from mine and legitimate visitors. In fact on most occasions they didn’t even bother dusting around for prints because SOCO knew that there wouldn’t be any.

The machines may be heavy and unwieldy today but once upon a time a simple basic mobile phone was like a house brick and look at them now. It’s called progress!

There was a time when the police could only arrest someone if there was evidence of a crime being committed, although they could detain someone for questioning on suspicion alone. Today you can be arrested on just suspicion and that was the thin end of the wedge.

[shillelagh]

Well according to the Lancashire Police Website you will have the chance of having your fingerprints took.

http://www.lancashire.police.uk/index.php?id=1291

Lancashire police are part of the trial on this. So if you get stopped you will have your fingerprints took.

[Ianto.W.]

Originally Posted by shillelagh

Well according to the Lancashire Police Website you will have the chance of having your fingerprints took.

http://www.lancashire.police.uk/index.php?id=1291

Lancashire police are part of the trial on this. So if you get stopped you will have your fingerprints took.

Oh no I will not!

[cashman]

i dont mind being fingerprinted at all, had it done at a few american airports and it certainly didn,t bother me. and this kid has never been a goody goody - maybe you find that hard to believe,but its true.