Suspects accused of trivial "crimes" such as picking wild flowers or defacing coins can have their DNA stored for life on a national database, police guidelines reveal.

 

A report by police chiefs lists more than 5,000 offences that qualify for lifelong inclusion on the database. Anyone arrested for any of the crimes will have his or her DNA taken and stored, even if charges are later dropped or the suspect is acquitted in court.

 

The offences show up in employment-vetting checks for years after the event. Campaigners called the guidelines a step on the road to a "surveillance society" and said the inclusion of petty offences was accelerating the growth of the database, which already holds details on four million people.

 

The 210-page list of crimes, drawn up by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), includes such minor offences as "opening an incorrectly delivered packet", an offence under the 2000 Postal Services Act; "wantonly disturbing any inhabitant by any ringing doorbell", an offence under the 1847 Town Police Clauses Act, and picking wild flowers for sale, an offence under the 1968 Theft Act.

 

Police have categorised the crimes into three grades of severity. If an adult is convicted of a crime in the least-serious category, group C, it will show up in employment checks for the next 10 years. If the offender admits guilt and accepts a police caution, it will show up for five years. After that period, the only potential employers who will see it are those conducting "enhanced checks" on job-seekers applying to work with children.

 

It also remains visible to detectives during crime investigations until the individual's 100th birthday, when the record is finally deleted.

 

All the crimes on the list are classed as "recordable offences", in most cases because they can lead to prison.

 

A row broke out earlier this year after ministers proposed that the database – already the world's biggest – should be extended to include those accused of "non-recordable" offences, which include speeding and dropping litter.

 

Dr Helen Wallace, of the pressure group Genewatch, said the ACPO list illustrated the "unnecessary" expansion of the database which, she said, "allows the Government to restrict rights on the basis of arrest, rather than of being convicted".

 

The records are kept for life so that they can be matched to DNA samples. Even suspects who turn out to have been wrongfully arrested normally stay on the database.

 

Nationwide, one in 15 people are included on it. Police say that keeping the details of those who have never been convicted of an offence has helped to solve serious crimes including rapes and murders.

 

Source: Sunday Telegraph

And people still say we dont live in a Police State.....

 

This is just utterly ludicrous to the point of insanity..... You surely risk bringing the law and the police into utter ridicule and revulsion by such measures as these..... Is it any wonder very few people trust the police and the govt anymore....?

And people still say we dont live in a Police State.....

 

This is just utterly ludicrous to the point of insanity..... You surely risk bringing the law and the police into utter ridicule and revulsion by such measures as these..... Is it any wonder very few people trust the police and the govt anymore....?

 

hold on a mo.... YOU were all for people who had been convicted of crimes being on the dna database! :lol: so the atricle highlighted some of the more trivial crimes... but who has been convicted of picking wild flowers? lol (besides not ALL wildflowers are protected, the rare ones are targeted by real crims... orchids in particular are stolen to order... that is 'picking' wildflowers).

And people still say we dont live in a Police State.....

 

utter bollox.... if we live in a police state...they aint doing a very good job of it! :lol:

hold on a mo.... YOU were all for people who had been convicted of crimes being on the dna database! :lol: so the atricle highlighted some of the more trivial crimes... but who has been convicted of picking wild flowers? lol (besides not ALL wildflowers are protected, the rare ones are targeted by real crims... orchids in particular are stolen to order... that is 'picking' wildflowers).

But the article specificaly referred to people suspected of these offences, not convicted.

It's turning into a slippery slope.

They'll soon include anyone who swears in public or drops a cigarette butt on the ground or taking a sickie off work.

The offences will keep getting more petty until you'd have to be a new born not to commit some kind of infringement for them to legally take your DNA.

Its all putting off the inevitable really.

They know they can't make everyone give their DNA by force, so they just do this in a clandestine and under hand way until they achieve what they want anyway.

We know what their up to and they know we know. But they know you can't do jack about it if it isn't obvious.

Edited November 5, 200717 yr by Naomi Watts

I think everyone who does commit a crime yes then they should be on the DNA datababes - although people who dont shouldnt be

But the article specificaly referred to people suspected of these offences, not convicted.

 

Exactly.....

 

And it should only be that people are put on a DNA database for valid reasons, real crimes, such as rape, murder, burglary, assault; not ridiculous stuff like picking wild flowers or "wantonly ringing a doorbell", or indeed, speeding... Utter bullsh!t, and every bit as ludicrous as putting people who go for a wee in a dark alley on the sex offenders register..... This is being done by the backdoor and is completely dishonest..... <_<

 

Anyone familiar with the term "mission creep".....? This stinks of it....