In a trial measure rolled out this week, British police gained the power to take the fingerprints of members of the public while out on patrol, cross-referencing the data against a national database containing 6.5 million fingerprints, the BBC reported.

Using PDA-like devices, officers can obtain a response from the database in as little as a couple of minutes, and strategically the scheme will be combined with other police powers — including Automatic Number Plate Recognition facilities.

This will enable police to identify “vehicles of interest” — which are also cross-referenced against a national insurance and taxation database — fingerprint the occupants, and discover their identities; all within a few minutes, and without the need for justification or charges.

Currently, police must arrest a member of the public and take them back to a police station before their fingerprints can be taken; “live scan” machines in police stations have a 99.5% accuracy rate, more reliable than the new handheld devices which are accurate 94-95% of the time. The new measures will override this, meaning anyone can be fingerprinted without the burden of suspicion needed to charge a suspect.

Government minister for police, Tony McNulty, said in a statement released Tuesday that such measures would “reduce any inconvenience for innocent members of the public”; how exactly their apparently random selection and fingerprinting will reduce inconvenience for them is anybody’s guess.