2022/25015 - Mobile Fingerprint Technology

REQUEST

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act for information regarding your force’s use of mobile fingerprint technology. 

Please provide the following information about your force’s use of mobile biometric technology for the periods between April 2020 and the end of December 2021; if you do not hold this information for the whole length of the period stated above, please provide it for the period starting from the date you began recording the information:

1. The number of times the mobile biometrics devices were used.
2. The following information about each search: which database was searched (Police [IDENT1] or Immigration [IABS]) or both), date, reason for fingerprinting, officer defined ethnicity, self-defined ethnicity, gender of the person scanned, age of person scanned, PNC search location, response (i.e. whether the search returned a record. If so, please specify which database the record was returned from).
3. How many times was Command & Control contacted following a search.
4. The location of where the initial Stop and Scan was done (e.g. street, neighbourhood, city, patch), however your force records this.
5. If your force does not currently use mobile biometric scanners, please state if there are plans to adopt the use of the devices, and if yes on what date. 

RESPONSE

1. The number of times the mobile biometrics devices were used.

Not known – Gwent Police does not currently use mobile biometric devices. However, a single device has been deployed within the Force area on a single date during April 2021 and operated by a Gwent Police Officer as part of an operation conducted in conjunction with The Metropolitan Police Service.

However, statistics relating to whether the device was actively used or not during that operation have not been recorded by the team. The device in question was owned by the MPS and Gwent Police do not have access to backend systems used for logging use of the devices.

2. The following information about each search: which database was searched (Police [IDENT1] or Immigration [IABS]) or both), date, reason for fingerprinting, officer defined ethnicity, self-defined ethnicity, gender of the person scanned, age of person scanned, PNC search location, response (i.e., whether the search returned a record. If so, please specify which database the record was returned from).

Not applicable – please see answer for question 1.

3. How many times was Command & Control contacted following a search.

Not applicable – please see answer for question 1.

4. The location of where the initial Stop and Scan was done (e.g. street, neighbourhood, city, patch), however your force records this.

Not applicable – please see answer for question 1.

5. If your force does not currently use mobile biometric scanners, please state if there are plans to adopt the use of the devices, and if yes on what date.

Gwent Police does not currently use mobile biometric scanners and there are no current plans to introduce them to the organisation.