Anonymous

Leighton Buzzard

IT Security Consultant

Forget the implementation cost, it's totally irrelevant, partly as the project will never be completed due to cost overruns and technology problems.
Another factor is that in 2002/03 the police performed 869,164 stop and searches. Assume this number stays the same and an ID card is verified in each case.
If the accurate identification rate from the biometrics can be increased to 97.5% from the current around 80% level then 21,729 people would presumably be arrested just for having forged ID cards. Of course there is then no real way for them to prove their identity without an extensive investigation. Let's assume this takes 3 hours of police time. this then costs 8,148 man days of police time and leaves over 21,000 very annoyed people each year. Remeber this is just to prove an 'identity' it won't flash up 'Terrorist' or 'Criminal' anywhere.