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A police test using handheld computers to fingerprint digitally drivers of stopped cars has been criticised by the Council for Civil Liberties.
Chairman of the Council for Civil Liberties Michael Bott said the digital fingerprinting to confirm a person's identity favoured the police.
He said there was a real risk that fingerprints found at crime scenes might be left by innocent people at another time, who then unfairly became suspects.
However, police said they were not going to abandon the move after testing the technology on volunteers during a six-month trial in Porirua, the Dominion-Post reported.
Police also urged a law change that would allow them to force a stopped driver to give up their fingerprints.
Current legislation allows them to take fingerprints only from people under arrest, though they can ask someone to volunteer fingerprints.
- NZPA
