The piloting of these devices over the last 18 months has shown significant time savings when police officers are trying to establish the identity of persons stopped in the street: Benefits include: Lantern enables the capture of fingerprint details suitable for identifying individuals in an operational environment. It allows real-time searching of the national fingerprint collection on the National Automated Fingerprint System (IDENT1). Lantern's overarching purpose is to establish a person's identity using their fingerprints, away from the police station, thus increasing the time officers spend on the frontline. Richard Earland, Chief Information Officer at the NPIA said, "Lantern forms part of a wider programme to help reduce bureaucracy in the police service and increase visibility of police officers to the public. As the pilot continues, the NPIA will look at the longevity of the programme and the benefits it presents to improve policing." Notes to editors: About NPIA NPIA is a single national organisation created to support effective policing. It provides expertise in areas as diverse as information and communications technology, support to information and intelligence sharing, core police processes, managing change and recruiting, developing and deploying people. The organisation's creation in April 2007 streamlined and simplified the way that policing improvement is delivered locally and nationally. NPIA works for the police service and is governed by a tripartite board comprising ACPO, APA, Home Office and independent members. The ACPO President is a member of the NPIA Board. The Lantern device works by electronically scanning the subject's index fingers, which are sent using encrypted wireless transmissions to the central fingerprint database. A real-time search against the national fingerprint collection of 7.5 million prints is performed. Any possible matches are identified and transmitted to an officer in a target time of less than five minutes. The Lantern pilot will aid the development of a potential national solution for use by all forces by demonstrating how it performs in an operational environment. The 10 police forces previously taking part in pilot are Bedfordshire Police, British Transport Police, Essex Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary, Lancashire Constabulary, Metropolitan Police Service, North Wales Police, Northamptonshire Police, West Midlands Police and West Yorkshire Police. These forces will continue to use the devices in conjunction with the new forces, bringing the total devices on trial to 200 across 20 forces. Northrop Grumman and Sagem supply the handheld devices and search capability being used in the pilot. Cable & Wireless provide encryption services and secure connectivity. Peter Goodman, Assistant Chief Constable of Derbyshire Constabulary and Senior Responsible Owner for the project said, "The second phase of this project reiterates the focus of the police service; to put more officers on the street. The impact that Lantern - and other similar projects - has on policing is vast and I look forward to evaluating the progress of the project within my force and across the other pilot forces."
These savings are of particular benefit on Friday and Saturday evenings when police officers are at their busiest, responding to calls.
About Lantern
The new forces using Lantern are; City of London Police, Durham Constabulary, Avon and Somerset Police, Thames Valley Police, Kent Police, Surrey Police, Derbyshire Constabulary, Leicestershire Constabulary, Merseyside Police and Greater Manchester Police.
