Police are proposing to change the law so they can take fingerprints from people before they are arrested or charged.
Head of the Police Act Review, Superintendent Hamish McCardle, said under the proposal police would be able to take fingerprints with mobile scanners and check them against the national database.
He said in cases of possible identity theft where offender do not produce a driver's license or other identification fingerprint scanning would save the police and the offender time, and protect innocent members of the public.
"On quite a number of occasions, quite a number of people lie about who they are," he said.
"If we don't know who that person is we have no choice but to take them back to the station and go through fingerprinting and photographs to find them in the national database.
"This provides certainty for the Government and the state that the right person has been arrested," he said.
He said the technology available had greatly increased since the 1958 Police Act was introduced, with technology to capture biometric data being developed overseas, like iris scanners.
But, he said the technology would not be used to become 'big brother'. Fingerprints would taken in the exactly the same types of situations as they are now.
"It actually protects other people's rights as well as serves the interest of justice," he said.
He said it would only be a small change to the existing legislation, but it would give police more jurisdiction to take fingerprints and photographs of suspects.
"It's not about catching large amounts of people to build up a big database," he said.
The review would also look at clarifying the law around undercover policing and giving more power to non-sworn police staff.
The review of the Police Act is open to public consultation and is available at www.policeact.govt.nz. Submissions close July 31.
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