Commentary on Sections Part 1: Amendments of Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Section 9: Taking fingerprints without consent
127.This Section extends the circumstances in which the police may take a person’s fingerprints without consent to include taking fingerprints from a person arrested for a recordable offence and detained in a police station.
128.Section 61 of PACE currently provides powers for taking fingerprints from those in police detention without consent in the following circumstances:
	following charge with a recordable offence or notification that a suspect will be reported for such an offence;
	on the authority of an inspector, which can only be given where the officer has reasonable grounds for believing the suspect is involved in a criminal offence and the fingerprints will tend to confirm or disprove his involvement or facilitate the ascertainment of his identity;
	an authorisation may only be given for the purpose of facilitating the ascertainment of the person’s identity where the person has either refused to identify themselves or the authorising officer has reasonable grounds to suspect they are not who they claim to be.
129.Fingerprints may also be taken from a person convicted of a recordable offence or cautioned, warned or reprimanded in respect of such an offence.
130.Subsection (2) replaces the existing provisions about the taking of fingerprints on the authority of an Inspector with a wider power to take fingerprints from any person detained in consequence of his arrest for a recordable offence.
131.The existing requirement to give a person whose fingerprints are taken without consent reasons for doing so and for recording the reason as soon as practical applies to the new power (see subsection (5) of section 9).
132.This amendment to section 61 of PACE will prevent persons who come into police custody and who may be wanted on a warrant or for questioning on other matters from avoiding detection by giving the police a false name and address. Using Livescan technology, which enables the police to take fingerprints electronically and which is linked to the national fingerprint database (NAFIS), the police will be able to confirm a person’s identity whilst he is still in police detention if his fingerprints have been taken previously. It will also assist in enabling vulnerable or violent people to be identified more quickly and dealt with more effectively. A speculative search of the fingerprint crime scene database will also reveal if the person may have been involved in other crimes.