The Poolie Bunker

Jail cells in shopping centres, sports stadiums and railway stations apparently. Along with 53 different pieces of information to be provided every time you enter or leave the country.

I'll curl one for them on their front desk, they can take whatever fkin DNA they like from that.

easy way to get everyone onto a DNA database i guess, i'd voluntarily let em take my DNA. i think its a good idea having a DNA datatbase although many disagree.

But where is this all going to stop. ? Yes it sounds good to have a dna database to help catch the scum like rapists and killers but it could get to a ridiculous point where people who are innocent are framed by the bent plod just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Once the database is in place no doubt the plod will want powers to find people who spit gum in the street and discard tab ends.

What about the poor guy who spits on someone's chuddy and gets wrongly convicted!

Isn't that the point of DNA, to STOP the old bill from fitting people up?

I can't really see them getting away with that....

no thats why the cops will be picking people up for tedious crimes to get them on the database, they will probably let em off with a warning or caution once they've got the saliva sample.

Is DNA 100% accurate though?

I remember reading about a case 2/3 years ago where a man in his 50's from Lancashire had been arrested in connection with a burglary in Portsmouth, nothing sinister about that you may say...but the bloke in question had been in a wheelchair for about 15 years, had a 24hr carer and was practically housebound

Apparently DNA taken from the scene of the crime matched this blokes

I never did find out what happened in the end

Why did a bloke who had been wheelchairbound with a carer have his DNA on the database? I though you only got put on the database if you committed a crime?

Nope. Whenever someone is arrested they are photographed, fingerprinted and DNA'd. This is prior to any charge.

At the moment they only take your DNA if the Offence could result in a Prison Sentence!!!!

Fair Do's, but my main point is that DNA evidence would be VERY hard to fabricate, or have I got that wrong as well?

I would have thought that a 'result' could be the easiest thing to fabricate.

For example, I'm not convinced the bloke who got banged up for killing Jill Dando was responsible according to all the evidence presented. The case seemed to hinge on forensics.

Giving bent coppers even more power will lead to problems, not solve them.......

It's gonna be a wonderful world isn't it?

Yeah it's called a 'recordable' offence. What they want to do now is take samples for any minor misdemeanour. It's like any other branch of science, it's fallible. They say there are 3 chances in a million that the match is inaccurate. Fair do's, but who administrates the taking of the samples?? Yeah humans.........

That doesnt leave very much. You can go to jail for the vast majority of offences, criminal damage even. Not sure you can go for public order sections 4 and 5

That doesn't leave much! A simple push is technically a battery; maximum sentence of 6 months!

S 4 defo a custodial offence. Not sure on s5; I think it is and it's a case in point. Tell plod to f00k off and it's a s5 offence!

What bothers me isn't the use of DNA for detection so much as the sheer amount of info now on file about everyone, from many different sources. Put it altogether, as some twerp in the Home Office may well already have done, and there you have a profile that can be used as a definition of you but which omits all the personal bits
E.g. (sorry am no use at links) an article in the Guardian this a.m. about happiness, which I think is frightening. Surveys are being done to assess happiness of different groups in society, so that the Govt can better form policies to eliminate dissatisfaction. How is happiness going to be defined in these cases? According to the report, 'ministers are not about to set targets for national happiness',,,but who knows how this sort of thing might end?
One of the chief reaearchers at the LSE, 'Lord' Layard is already advocating 'happiness lessons in schools' to teach kids how to eliminate negative emotions (does this mean kids who are unhappy in ways not prescribed by the government??.) Layard thinks these lessons should include religious education.
As a Guardian reader has put it, will it be 'prison for anyone who is not sufficiently happy? We cannot allow emotions to be completely unregulated. Moods must be brought under democratic control.'