Switzerland. Geneva. Paquis police station. Two handcuffed african men from Guinea wait for the police officers to scan their fingerprints. Fingerprint recognition or fingerprint authentication is an automated method of verifying the identities of both men, arrested for selling drugs in the streets. A police station or station house is a building which serves police officers and contains offices, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms. A policeman (L) is wearing a ballistic vest, bulletproof vest or bullet-resistant vest which is an item of personal armor that helps absorb the impact from knives, firearm-fired projectiles and shrapnel from explosions, and is worn on the torso. Soft vests are made from many layers of woven or laminated fibers and can be capable of protecting the wearer from small-caliber handgun and shotgun projectiles, and small fragments from explosives such as hand grenades. 22.07.12 © 2012 Didier Ruef