Motorists to give fingerprints
No two fingerprints have ever been found to be identical on databases
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Drivers who get stopped by the police could have their fingerprints taken at the roadside, under a new plan to help officers check people's identities.
A hand-held device being tested by 10 forces in England and Wales is linked to a database of 6.5m prints.
Police say they will save time because people will no longer have to go to the station to prove their identity.
Officers promise prints will not be kept on file but concerns have been raised about civil liberties.
It's a first to search a national database and get a response back in a couple of minutes
Police Information Technology Organisation
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Bedfordshire are the first force to use the equipment, which is being distributed among the forces in Essex, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, North Wales, Northamptonshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire, as well as to British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police, over the next two months.
Officers will scan a vehicle's number plates using a special camera that checks if the car is subject to an offence, like being uninsured.
clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk 