The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Mobile fingerprint scanners will be introduced by Lincolnshire Police in a bid to save the force £1.8m.
Police will make 130 scanners available at a cost of £29,000.
A police spokesman said the scanners will allow officers to take fingerprints on the spot, rather than having to take people to a police station. They will also be used to identify people in medical emergencies.
Andrew White, Assistant Chief Officer at Lincolnshire Police sais: “We want our officers to have the very best tools to do their job and these new scanners are going to save them valuable time. This means they will have more time to do what they do best – tackle crime and keep us all safe.
“It’s really important that we identify someone as soon as possible, to either help our investigations, or inform someone’s next of kin if they have been seriously injured and time is of the essence.
“We will also use these to check suspects are who they say they are, so they may be more likely to cooperate with us in the first place.”
Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones said the scanners join the tech updates that have resulted in savings thousands of hours of policing a year.
PCC Jones said: “This will further compliment the technology that our officers already have to hand. We made a significant investment in getting our officers smartphones which are connected to all the relevant police systems, and introducing these saved every single officer an hour of their time on each shift. This saved the force over 170,000 hours of policing a year.
“I anticipate these scanners will save even more time and I’m delighted to have been able to make this possible.”
Inspector Gareth Boxall of Spalding Police, said: “All our patrol cars in South Holland have been equipped with these devices meaning that all our front line officers will have use of this excellent technology.
“Not only does this mean that our officers are able to check the identity of those they are dealing with really quickly, but in order to do so they are saved the travel and inefficiency of having to travel to the nearest equipped police station to do so.
“That means more time spent in the communities of South Holland which is worth every penny of the investment and I hope will be welcomed by all.”
At the time of press, Lincolnshire Police had not confirmed whether data of scans will be retained, or whether fingerprints that don’t match databases will be retained.
