Fingerprint Furore

There has been widespread press this week regarding the concerns of the proposed introduction of fingerprint scanning of motorists at the roadside.

The proposal - which is in fact already in motion with 10 police forces across the UK - has caused businesses to raise concern over the increase in time spent on the road for its fleets with this new spotcheck being introduced.

This roadside device would work by electronically scanning a drivers index finger, and the scans are then sent via wireless to a central fingerprint database. Any matches can be identified and then returned to the police officer within a targeted time of less than 5 minutes, during which the driver is still pulled over on the side of the road.

As well as the increased time on journeys for people who are presumably already trying to stick to a tight schedule it could be said that this on the spot check could bring more intrusion to the individual which would by far outweigh any benefits it might provide. It will again provoke debate on the ‘Big Brother’ attitude across the UK where it appears the government is trying to locate people at all times!

However the benefits of this proposal can be that the identity of a driver who is uninsured can be traced so quickly that it would hope to provide a reduction in incidents as well as reducing the increase in insurance premiums.