Policing - new material (88)
01 October 2009
Small Print, Gary Mason. Police Review 16.10.09, pp. 28-29. This piece examines the increasing use of biometric identification technology in the criminal justice system and the impact of the Prum Treaty, signed by 11 EU countries in 2005. ACPO says that the UK will be implementing the Treaty in 2010 and Mason considers the potential for British police to exchange data, such as fingerprints and DNA, with foreign countries, noting that: “While the exchange of DNA data remains a sensitive area because of concerns about privacy, the exchange of fingerprint information between police agencies in different countries has developed at a much faster pace.”
Police misconduct and the law, Stephen Cragg, Tony Murphy and Heather Williams QC. Legal Action October 2009, pp. 15-19. This is the latest edition in the authors six monthly review of important case-law relating to developments in police misconduct law.
FBI identify the need for next-generation biometric platform, Gary Mason. Police Product Review December 2009 / January 2010, p. 14. This article looks at the US FBI’s Identification Division which operates “the world’s largest biometric databases. It has 390 million 10-print cards on file and 82 million fingerprint records in its automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS)...In addition to fingerprints, the FBI’s DNA database has more than seven million offender profiles on file.” The Bureau is now “concentrating on building what it calls ‘person-centric’ records which combine biometric records with other data to build up a more complete picture of an individual.”
Stand and Deliver, Max Blain. Police Review 16.10.09, pp. 26-27. This article looks at police stop and search powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, following comments by Lord Carlisle, the government’s reviewer of terrorism legislation, that the number of searches could be halved “without any deterioration in national security whatsoever”.
Flash-bang to rights, Gary Mason. Police Product Review October / November 2009, pp. 32-34. This article looks at the controversial use of so-called “less lethal” stun projectiles in the USA and UK. It discusses the UK-based Civil Defence Supply’s development of the S10 Multiburst device “which is designed to remain more static during deployment by firearms teams, making its effects more predictable.” The S10 is described: “The all-steel device delivers 175 decibels of sound and over three million candelas of blinding light while subjecting the receiver to over 2psi of blast pressure, making it suitable for use in both confined spaces or larger indoor areas.”
Biometrics. Police Product Review December 2009 / January 2010, pp. 19-20. Update on biometric technology programmes in the USA.