Soon, a mobile tool to recognize fingerprints: Can we expect reduction in crime rates now?

Following the demand by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. based National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed an application for a handheld touch screen devices, which can help in creating a portable tool to recognise faces and fingerprints. FBI has been using a laptop that was loaded with a fingerprint scanner to identity criminals, hence the intelligence agency wanted to equip them with a more portable device for which it approached the NIST. Initially, the FBI wanted NIST to only develop software to run on its own platform.

The design, was as per FBI's requirements. They needed a small tool that could take pictures of fingerprints or faces and send the data wirelessly to a central hub for analysis, all with lesser touch strokes. But these devices could identify fingerprints and faces. Earlier, the NIST team had been associated with other security agencies on Mobile ID project. This was a method to help officers identify people quickly and easily on the crime scene, instead of taking them back to the central command to be fingerprinted.

So users, can we expect an decrease in crime rates now?