IN ENGLAND, 300 CHILDREN A DAY ARE STOPPED BY POLICE AND SWABBED FOR DNA FOR THE DATABASE
FROM THE TELEGRAPH
More than 300 children a day have their DNA taken by the police and added to the national database.
Already 412,670 youngsters under 15 have their genetic profiles stored.
Once 15 to 17-year-olds are added, the total rises to an astonishing 1.1million, according to Freedom of Information replies revealed yesterday.
The DNA samples, from children as young as ten, are kept regardless of whether or not they were ever charged.
Critics accuse the police of arresting entire groups of youngsters simply to have their DNA to checked against evidence from crime scenes in future.
This year alone, police forces have taken DNA from 54,311 subjects aged 10 to 17, according to information obtained by Jo Shaw, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Holborn and St Pancras. She said: 'Labour's approach to tackling crime is unfair, heavy-handed and ineffective.'
There are around five million people on the DNA database - making it the largest in the world. Of these, at least 850,000 are innocents who have never been convicted of any crime. On this basis, around 200,000 of the children on the database will be innocent.
The samples were taken under rules introduced by Tony Blair which allow suspects to be swabbed as soon as they are arrested.
Miss Shaw said: 'Storing the DNA of thousands of innocent young people is unlikely to solve our crime problems, but is a costly way of stigmatising young people. If you're innocent, you shouldn't have your data kept for years."
The Metropolitan Police is the worst culprit, stockpiling DNA from 144,487 young people over the last decade. The force takes DNA from thirteen children under 15 every day.
DNA graphic
Liberal Democrat spokesman Chris Huhne said: 'Innocent people should be removed from the database immediately and kids should stop being targeted to boost numbers.'
After a crushing ruling by the European Court of Human Rights last December, police will no longer be allowed to store the DNA of innocents indefinitely.
But the Home Office's proposals for complying with the ruling have proved highly controversial.
Any child convicted of a serious offence will remain on the database indefinitely - as will adults - but youngsters convicted of only one minor offence will be deleted when they turn 18.
Those wrongly accused of a minor crime will also have their DNA removed at 18. but children accused, but not convicted, of a serious crime will have theirs stored for 12 years.
There will also be a 'two strikes and you're out' policy, where children accused twice of minor offences will remain on the database for at least six years - even if they are cleared both times.
Helen Wallace, director of campaign group Genewatch UK, said: 'An excessive number of children and young people are being added to the database and there is no evidence it is helping to solve serious crimes. The numbers should be significantly reduced and innocent people removed.'
The Home Office said: 'The number of young people on the DNA database reflects the number who have been arrested for a recordable offence. That is an important threshold, as arrest must be based on a reasonable suspicion that the person is involved in the offence.
'We recognise the need for special consideration when dealing with young people and have consulted on proposals to remove juveniles from the database when they turn 18 provided they are not re-arrested and are not convicted of serious, violent or sexual offences. We have also removed all under-10s.'
Showing posts with label BRITISH BOBBIES. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BRITISH BOBBIES. Show all posts
BEING ARRESTED FOR BEING TOO TALL NEAR LONDON TOWNE
FROM THE GUARDIAN
DISCUSSION OF THIS STORY ON THE LONDON FORUMS AT SLEEPNEWYORK
Photographer Alex Turner has been arrested by Kent police for being "too tall" in an action which must cast further doubt on the collective sanity of Kent Police and which also suggests that some police forces are now really behaving as if we lived in police state, a phrase that I have been reluctant to use.
...Turner gives a full account of being stopped by two men in Chatham High Street, after he took a picture of a fish bar called Mick's Plaice, which stands between Specsavers and a shop called Mr Flower and advertises jacket potatoes and an all day breakfast in a colour scheme of bold blue and white. The men said they worked for Medway Council.
"Whilst sharing their views about the threat of terrorism officer xxxxx [name redacted] stated she had felt threatened by me when I took her picture. I cannot recall exactly what she said but I do recall her referring to my size and implying she found it intimidating at the time (I am 5ft 11in and weigh about 12 stone)."
DISCUSSION OF THIS STORY ON THE LONDON FORUMS AT SLEEPNEWYORK
Photographer Alex Turner has been arrested by Kent police for being "too tall" in an action which must cast further doubt on the collective sanity of Kent Police and which also suggests that some police forces are now really behaving as if we lived in police state, a phrase that I have been reluctant to use.
...Turner gives a full account of being stopped by two men in Chatham High Street, after he took a picture of a fish bar called Mick's Plaice, which stands between Specsavers and a shop called Mr Flower and advertises jacket potatoes and an all day breakfast in a colour scheme of bold blue and white. The men said they worked for Medway Council.
"Whilst sharing their views about the threat of terrorism officer xxxxx [name redacted] stated she had felt threatened by me when I took her picture. I cannot recall exactly what she said but I do recall her referring to my size and implying she found it intimidating at the time (I am 5ft 11in and weigh about 12 stone)."
POLICE HAVE JUDGE AND JURY POWERS TO CONVICT IN LONDON
There are dangers in allowing the police to act as judge and jury – the government should review the use of on-the-spot fines
On-the-spot fine are the exemplar of the government's penchant for instant justice. A startling 55% of all "offences brought to justice" are now dealt with outside the court system though fines, cautions and formal warning, and the Magistrates' Association has received alarming reports that this figure includes very serious offences, such as arson, rape, and GBH.
Take knife crime, an issue currently creating a great deal of public concern, the guidance given to magistrates means an offence will usually attract a custodial sentence, but during the first few months of this year some 1600 offenders have been given a simple caution by police officers.
Unsurprisingly the Magistrates' Association is therefore very concerned about further offences being added to the fixed penalty list, and have pressed that point on justice secretary, Jack Straw, with some success.
Straw recently produced revised operational guidance for the police on the issuing of penalty notices for disorder for retail crime and criminal damage in response to concerns that repeat offenders are escaping court because police hand out a string of on-the-spot fines for easy convictions. In one case highlighted, a thief was given 12 successive fixed penalties for shoplifting.
There is no dispute that fixed penalty notices issued by the police are an effective way of dealing with some minor offences, no one would suggest that all speed camera offences should come to court, and in the case of many other offences a fixed penalty or caution is appropriate.In my own speciality of road traffic, a Department of Transport consultation earlier this year included proposals to allow the police powers to issue on-the-spot fines for the offence of careless driving.
The Magistrate's Association do not believe that the offence of careless driving should be brought within the fixed penalty regime for two main reasons. First, it is not a clear-cut offence. It is a subjective matter of judgment whether a piece of driving was bad enough to amount to careless driving, and we believe that matters that require a judgment to be made are matters that should be brought to court. Second, careless driving covers a wide range of behaviour from minor inattention to behaviour just below dangerous driving, and the penalties available to a court reflect this, ranging from three to nine penalty points or disqualification, and a fine of up to £5000.
By contrast the fixed penalty would only be for three points and £60. There would be a strong temptation for the police to issue a fixed penalty even in a serious case, to avoid what the government itself calls "a heavy burden of paperwork".Surely rather than proposing further fixed penalties, the government's first response should be to establish whether all this paperwork is really necessary?
For the driver concerned there may be a difficult choice, if he believes himself to be innocent, he can either swallow his objection and accept the fixed penalty, or run the risk of going to court where the penalty may be considerably higher.
One has to question whether it is just to impose this sort of pressure. Drivers and others may well be told by police that a fixed penalty does not count as a conviction, which is correct, but it does still go on their criminal record.
The Magistrate's Association believes that justice is best delivered openly, in court, and while out of court disposals are acceptable for minor offences, the balance needs to be very carefully considered.
LONDON 2 TO 9 YEAR OLDS STOPPED AND SEARCHED BY POLICE
FROM THE DAILYMAIL
AND HERE
AND HERE
Recent figures released under Freedom of Information rules revealed that thousands of children under the age of 10 are stopped and searched for drugs, weapons or stolen goods each year. In 2007 and last year the Met stopped 939 children under 10.
But Dr Mike Lindsay, from the Children's Rights Alliance, said: "The age of criminal responsibility is still 10. It's not possible for a nine-year-old to commit a criminal offence."
Lambeth police superintendent David Musker said: "This matter has been reported to the Department for Professional Standards and will be investigated. It is inappropriate to comment at this stage. However, I would like to reassure the communities of Lambeth that the Met takes all complaints seriously."
POLICE WITHOUT ID WAS THE FAULT OF THE PRESS
FROM THE TIMES
Police Fed finally responds over G20 - it was the media's fault
Police Fed finally responds over G20 - it was the media's fault
The Police Federation, which was rather backward in coming forward in defending officers involved in the G20 protests, has blamed the media for much of the alleged wrongdoing. Forget about a legal requirement for officers to wear their identification numbers, the solution is to introduce more rigorous guidelines on what the press can report.
Simon Reed, Vice Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “Distorted reporting by the media needs remedying quickly but unfortunately the nature of the beast is that they only choose to report what they wish to. Perhaps more stringent media guidelines that do not in any way suppress the freedom of the press should be considered to ensure fair and impartial reporting.”
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