Surely your remember
Project Lantern from back in 2006, right? If you weren't too fond of that initiative, let's just say your worst nightmare is coming true. Going forward, every police force in the
UK will be equipped with mobile fingerprint scanners, which will allow the fuzz to carry out identity checks right on the street. Dubbed Project Midas, this here setup is supposed to "transform the speed of criminal investigations"while simultaneously
freaking out anyone remotely concerned about personal privacy; in fairness, cops insist that fingerprints scanned via these portable devices will not be stored or added to databases, and we're told that they'll only be used " when they suspect an individual of an offense and can't establish his / her identity." The £30 million ($47.5 million) to £40 million ($63.4 million) initial phase should hit widespread deployment within 18 months, and in case you thought it was over
after this, you should probably know that facial recognition in the field is the next top priority.
[Via
Pocket-lint, image courtesy of
SpringCard]
posted October 27th 2008 11:03AM
I've seen these in use, what's the big deal? If you knew how much hassle it is for the cops to sort stuff out on the road because of stupid chavs giving false names and crap like that then you'd realise the only people it hurts is those muppets. It just speeds up the investigation which they draw out because they're simply too stupid saying they "ant dun nowt" repeatedly when they 99% of the time have.
Hardly an invasion of privacy for "normal" folk as they won't be on the fingerprint databases so these will just give a negative response.
Shame you got low ranked....I 100% agree with you...cops have a hard enough time as it is, if this will make it easier for them, and speed up the process for the 'innocent' civilians then what's the problem?
This makes baby George Orwell cry. You have to ask your self, "WWGOD?"
Sorry to be ignorant, but how can you have a negative birthrate? Are the babies crawling back in?
Gah, that was meant to be in reply to Rahul.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/27/uk-police-to-wield-mobile-fingerprint-scanners-facial-recogniti/comments/15132031/
That more people are dying than are being born? Or, that birth rates year on year are decreasing?
Looking at the size of your average Post Office queue (always a good barometer of the amount of coffin dodgers in the population), I reckon the latter.
You can have negative population growth, but not a negative birth rate.
This has been used in the UK for a short while now, only in small numbers and basically a trial period.The only times it seem to be getting used as if mentioned, someone gives a false name or refuses to give their details for whatever reason and the officer doesnt fully believe them, then they can use this and quickly find out the truth.It works, and is very quick and effective.
As for the storing of the details, then I'm not entirely sure on where we would stand, if they officially say it is not getting stored, then surely there would be some way of appealing against something if somehow they linked you to a crime or whatever at a later date as a result of using the prints scanned for a check.No doubt they will have some sort of disclaimer type thing made up and we would need to read up every single document and formalities regarding it, but with the Freedom of Information Act here I don't think it would be that hard in finding out.
I have had both my DNA and prints taken on quite a few occasions in the past, and tbh, I'm not bothered.In my opinion, [i]most[/i] people who reject to this, have no reason to object to this, and surely if something happened to a family member or anything like that, then I'm quite sure they would rather have a database to check prints found on than having no database at all, potentially allowing whoever is responsible to get away scott free.
Oh please WHEN WILL THIS MADNESS END. When can this government stop being a terrifying force of authoritarian vice.
AGHHHHHHH
Look, the police in the UK have the power to arrest you if you:-
A) Do not give them your name or address, or
B) Give them your name and address but they suspect that it is false
If they can identify you from previous records (assuming that you already have a criminal record and are on the database) then it will save a hell of a lot of work/time/paperwork if they can identify you on the street.
If you have nothing to hide then why wouldnt you give your name in the first place???
Surely only the criminal element have something to worry about? And if thats the case then making it easier for the police to identify suspects helps out the law abiding members of society.
I for one am all for it!!
The problem occurs when the government becomes "criminal". Can you ever think of a time in history or in some OTHER country where the government behaved in a criminal fashion? Of course, that couldn't possibly ever happen in the US or UK. That would be ludicrous. One couldn't even imagine such a thing. If one dared imagine such a thing, one might be considered a terrorist.
Only other governments are "evil".
Only citizens of other countries can be "brainwashed".
Only other "races" are susceptible to corruption.
Your government is always fair.
Your media only reports the truth.
You are far too intelligent to be brainwashed.
Wake up.
England can burn; and it will. I remember not long ago reading on Engadget about portable cameras, set on telescopic arms, that are secretly set up in English neighborhoods to catch those who do not recycle. They are then served a hefty 1000 pound fine. The cameras are easy to move and set up, and thus you never know if you are being surveilled. I cannot understand how a once proud people can be reduced to human sewage, and I hope we don't find out in the USA over the next 8 years under Democrat redistibutionist socialist tyranny.
The smartest Englishmen are already quietly abandoning England and emigrating. Get out while you can---no doubt soon there will be an 'emigration fee' if you want to leave.
But where do you go? It's getting like this everywhere.
but we still manage universal healthcare for all, free at the point of service.
pretty good for human sewage
Its not health care, it's drone-maintenance.
Awesome!
A little makeup, maybe a fake scar, anything that will change the geometry of your face will defeat the facial recognition bit. And if your a damn fool like me who plays with fire more often than he should, fingerprinting is not a worry. I've had to wait to get fingerprinted for jobs with the county just so my finger prints could grow back. Wearing fakes ones will defeat it as well.
On a side note, the police I've talked to, at least the ones here in the states, don't like any of the current fingerprinting devices because it occupies both their hands. Which makes going for a gun or any other tool rather difficult. We have been trying to deploy these things to several agencies and have had the same reaction all over, they don't want anything that distracts them from normal operations. Even if you have two officers, one to use the device and one to cover him. The departments aren't going to double their line staff just so they can deploy one device for each vehicle. There is going to have to be a lot more gizmo development before this becomes common place inside the borders.
in the UK policemen never do front-line policing alone, so less of a problem.
Also people don't gun down eachother as much in britain as in the US (although they are trying to increase that), being shot as a cop in britain is extremely unlikely (why do you think they can pull all these stunts in the first place?).
I'd like to know if the devices are /capable/ of transmitting the fingerprint data to the central database, but this functionality is not going to be used. If this is the case, this means that a "first step" would be complete. Once the scanners are in use, it's only a small step a year or two down the line to further their scope to the point of collecting data.
If the scanners /aren't/ capable of doing this, then I would be somewhat placated, at least the move from identifying criminals to harvesting data would involve re-buying fingerprint kit and rolling out a new, next-level project.
Kind of makes me wonder why England even bothered fighting Germany in WWII. Hitler would be proud.