South Australian Cops Want to Use Fingerprint Scanners to ID People In Public

The South Australian state parliament is considering a proposal to give police the power to scan fingerprints in public. If passed, the bill will give police the ability to request fingerprints from anyone they suspect of committing a crime—and anyone they think may be able to assist with an inquiry.

Police are currently able to stop anyone on the street and request to see some form of traditional ID, but fingerprints are only allowed to taken once a person has been charged. If the bill gets passed, suspects will be required to have their prints scanned upon request. Since 2014, the SA Government has trialled 150 scanners sporadically across the state and plans to spend $3.4 million on the technology if approved.

The new scanners would be wirelessly linked to the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which will allow officers to access criminal records within a minute of scanning a suspect's prints.

Deputy Premier John Rau has released a statement arguing why fingerprint scanners are a good idea. "Legislative reform is necessary to enable police to use the scanners in wider circumstances, where a person does not have to give consent and police can scan for prints without the need to arrest," he said.

However, there's been considerable backlash from both sides about the ramifications for privacy and civil liberties. Greens leader Mark Parnell likened the changes to something out of George Orwell's 1984. "This is the realm of science fiction and it should send shivers down everyone's spine," he told The ABC. "It enables all manner of biometric testing and it does actually lead to a situation where the state could hold a database of every single person's fingerprints."

Liberal MP Andrew McLachlan wants the proposal reworded so police can only use scanners when someone refuses to present ID, or if they try and use a fake. "They [police] have a continued desire and drive to adopt practices that suit them rather than the community," McLachlan told the Advertiser. He also said that South Australian police were looking for the right to "invade our privacy at will."

President of the Law Society of South Australia, David Caruso, has concerns about citizens' privacy and how the data will be stored. "The Society shares the concerns of the Opposition about any availability to obtain fingerprint data," he said. "If such data is taken as a last resort, it would be necessary to look carefully at how it would be stored and retained."

The Law Society's former president Rocky Perotta, also released a statement highlighting his privacy concerns, particularly if people have their fingerprints taken without charge." Being forced to have a fingerprint scan is a serious intrusion on privacy and should only be justified in extreme cases," he told TOTT News.

However, after arguments from South Australian police that the Opposition's proposed changes would render the bill useless, the state government rejected all of them. A spokesperson for the Weatherill Government also said the fingerprints would not be kept on file after being scanned and that the scanners were intended to identify people who had just committed a crime.

Parliament could discuss as early as next week.

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