NSW Police have rolled out a new, state-of-the-art fingerprint ID system which digitally scans prints and hooks them up to a national computerised database.
Livescan has been installed at six police stations across the state at a cost of half a million dollars.
A further eight stations in NSW will be hooked up by the end of the financial year and all NSW police stations are set to get a taste of the action by 2003.
The livescan units work in much the same way as a small photocopier and process 256 grey scale images of fingerprints and incorporates palm printing.
Livescan units link into both a state-wide Computerised Operational Policing System (COPS) where all NSW incidents are logged and into a national database - Crim Trac - which provides full criminal histories, outstanding warrants and links to unsolved crimes.
"It will enable police across NSW - including stations in remote locations - to quickly identify and check the records of suspects in custody," Minister for Police, Paul Whelan said.
The new technology was successfully trialed at Burwood Police Station during the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
"On one occasion, an offender using an alias was arrested for a shoplifting offence and his prints were checked against the central database which revealed the man's true identity and allowed police to charge him in relation to 10 outstanding First Instance Warrants," Whelan said.
Livescan replaces traditional ink-based fingerprinting which has been around since 1906.
