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THE public do not trust the police to use mobile fingerprinting apps without racially profiling black communities, a new report suggests.
The handheld scanners allow police to check the identity of an unknown person by comparing their prints with 12 million records held on the National Crime Agency and immigration database.
The Racial Justice Network’s report, published yesterday, warns that the technology “runs fundamentally against [the] public interest and that police becoming a border force means inflicting further harm on those racially minoritised.”
A survey by the network found that 93 per cent of respondents did not support police use of the device and 96 per cent believed that it “embeds racial profiling.”
The report also found that 88 per cent of migrant respondents would not feel safe approaching the police for help or to report a crime.
Report author Dr Laura Loyola-Hernandez said that the study highlighted “the effects of years of hostile environment government policies and institutional racism embedded in police forces.”
