Predictably the police want more powers. This time it is to demand DNA from minor offenders:
Police are seeking powers to take DNA samples from suspects on the streets and for non-imprisonable offences such as speeding and dropping litter.
Er, why? Minor offences are dealt with at the time; the evidence is recorded and a ticket issued. There is absolutely no need for DNA evidence as the “crime” was observed first hand by the police officer – or council official. This is nothing more than more demands for greater control, to criminalise the population, to go fishing.
There is growing concern among MPs and civil liberties groups about the number of children under 10 and young black men on the database — the biggest in the world. But a number of police forces in England and Wales are backing proposals that would add millions more samples to it.
That imbalance could hardly pass unnoticed. However, we do not balance it by simply criminalising everyone else, by putting yet more DNA onto the database.
The Association of Chief Police Officers gave a warning, however, that allowing police to take samples for non-recordable offences — crimes for which offenders cannot be imprisoned — might be perceived as indicative of “the increasing criminalisation of the generally law-abiding public”.
Wow! Stop and look for a moment; a little nugget of sense from Acpo. Damn right that’s what it would do and for that reason this should be stopped dead in its tracks. This is a reversal of the presumption of innocence; something that the NuLab goons have been working on since gaining power a decade ago.
Of course the usual suspects think this Draconian piece of totalitarianism is a jolly spiffing idea.
The DNA database helps the police catch the correct perpetrators of many crimes – some of the most horrendous crimes and some of the most difficult to catch ‘anonymous’ crimes are solved mainly due to the database. The success of the database is unquestionable and is good news for all of us – innocent people have been set free as a result of the database.
Well, yes, it can assist with the solving of serious crimes. However too much data can be a hindrance as anyone who has been at the scene of a crime will become a suspect unnecessarily.
to be really fair we need to DNA database everybody – there need not be any stigma attached to being on this database. I would gratefully add my details if everybody in society had to be on it – as the benefits to me (and society in general) would outweigh my inconvenience.
Well, I won’t, so Neil won’t need to be called on that one. Whenever I read Neil’s slavish NuLab blatherings, praising his totalitarian puppeteers, I am reminded once more of Boxer – he was a useful idiot too, and much good it did him.
Completely agree about the dangers of the DNA database. What really really worries me though, is the attitude that a DNA match from a crime scene is on its own a indicator of guilt. What will the database proponents think when they are accused of some heinous crime because the real perpetrator had the foresight to seed the scene with false DNA trails. How hard would it be to collect some hair samples from the barber’s floor or someone else’s juice can from a bin or raiding someone’s wheely bin?
If I had it in for you I don’t think it would be impossible to leave your DNA all over a crime scene and then tip the plod off to your guilt.
Still think that if you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear now?
Hello and welcome.
I agree entirely. The possibilities for abuse send a shiver down the spine – as does the blind faith in technology.