A cutting-edge digital scanner will cut the time it takes police to identify suspects from days to minutes.

Scenes of crime officers unveiled their new Forensic Information Scanning Hub at Sussex House in Brighton.

They are hailing it as a revolutionary new weapon in the fight against crime.

Police use powder to dust for fingerprints and shoe marks at crime scenes and special tape to get an impression of the prints.

Until now that evidence has been sent through Sussex Police's internal post to the force's fingerprint bureau, meaning officers must wait up to seven days to find out if the prints match those of known criminals.

The new equipment means prints can be scanned onto computer and emailed to the bureau, enabling officers to identify suspects within hours or even minutes of a crime taking place.

Staff hope in future to be able to send prints directly to the fingerprint bureau from crime scenes.

Sussex Police commissioned the equipment from scanning company AGX Holdings and expect other forces will follow.

Jon Ashe, Sussex Police's principal scenes of crimes officer, said: "If you're burgled and your computer is stolen from your home, if it takes a week to identify the fingerprints left behind the computer is going to be long gone.

"If you can identify the offender within the hour the chances are they will still have it with them."