Biometric devices and U.S. law enforcement: smart, but legal?

From SmartPlanet:

Forty law enforcement agencies in the United States will, by this fall, employ the use of biometric diagnostic equipment to better identify people they come in contact with.

One thousand units of the $3,000 device, officially called the “Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System,” or MORIS, are already on order. But a new report by Al-Jazeera English raises questions about the legality of such a system.

First, the facts: inky fingerprinting and polaroid photos are policing techniques of the past. The future involves the use of biometric indicators — unique physical aspects, such as fingerprints, eye scans and other can’t-easily-be-replicated traits — to properly identify suspects.