Criminals beware - police are trawling the streets to get their hands on your fingerprints!

Kent Police were in Maidstone on Thursday road-testing a new hand-held machine, which they say will help save time and catch more criminals.

Previously officers would have had to take suspects into a police station for identification if they suspected them of giving false details.

Using the new machines the process takes only a few minutes.

Fingerprints are sent electronically to the National Fingerprint Database, to see if the person is registered and if further action is required.

Fingerprints of those not wanted by police will be discarded immediately, say police.

Sgt Nigel Stevens from Kent Police’s special operations unit said ordinary members of the public should not feel threatened by the new technology.

“There’s no new powers here; it’s just making it a more efficient way of doing it” he said,

“What it does is save a lot of time, both our time and the public’s. It allows us to do what we would have had to do at the police station."