Tony Mcnulty

Drivers pulled over by police are to have their fingerprints scanned by the side of the road. A pilot scheme for a new hand-held electronic fingerprint reader is to be launched in Luton, Bedfordshire, by officers targeting motoring offences. Police hope the Lantern device will save time and money by allowing them to identify suspects on the roadside without having to take them to the station. It lets officers search a national database of 6.5m fingerprints and get a result within five minutes.