DNA policy bets innocent may commit a crime within 6 years
The DNA of most innocent people arrested in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will not be kept for more than six years, the Home Office has said…
The move comes after the European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that the National DNA Database was illegal…
Ministers defend this as a proportionate tactic that protects the public, rather than a principled but simplistic stand for privacy. The problem is that there is a lack of data on how many crimes have been cracked thanks to retaining DNA from innocent people…
That leaves critics saying anyone in this category has been judged “not guilty – yet”. If the plan gets through before the general election, it will be challenged, testing ministers’ claims to have balanced privacy with a duty to protect the public.
Wasn’t there once a standard of constitutional rights being based upon principles rather than expedient policies enacted by a government run by fear-filled cowards?
How can people be judged temporarily innocent?
I can understand (but not agree)with the thought process of the police, and them being unwilling to clear DNA evidence that they have collected, but just how in the world did they ever come up with a 6 year time frame?
wok3
November 12, 2009 at 3:43 am
You’re right. Six years seems an odd number at first glance but this is a parliamentary democracy.
When politicians in a parliamentary democracy want to claim credit for being brave and dealing with a controversial issue – but they don’t actually want to do anything at all – they tend to just put it off until after the next election.
That’s usually four to six years.
If they don’t get re-elected, it’s not their problem anymore.
If they do get re-elected, they hope the stupid voters will have forgotten the issue and they can just let it slide, never to be mentioned again.
If that doesn’t work, they establish a Royal Commission to look into the issue for many years, at a cost of tens of millions of pounds or Euros or dollars, all of which go to friends of the politicians, of course – mostly other lawyers.
Sometimes Royal Commissions never end, never get to their ‘findings’ or the ‘findings’ are whatever the government of the day wants them to be.
The whole point is to let decades (or more) pass, doing exactly what you want to do, while never being held accountable for anything.
This is one of the reasons we all love politicians so much.
Cinaedh
November 12, 2009 at 7:05 am
This is one of the reasons we all love politicians so much.
Where do you get this “we” white man?
Mr. Fusion
November 12, 2009 at 11:28 am