Youths with no criminal record are being targeted for arrest so their DNA can be logged on a database in the event they commit crimes.
A total of 386 under-18s had their DNA taken and stored by police last year in one north London borough – more than one a day.
An experience officer working for the Metropolitan Police admitted the DNA was being stored as part of a ‘long-term crime prevention strategy’.
The officer said: ‘We are often told that we have just one chance to get that DNA sample and if we miss it then that might mean a rape or a murder goes unsolved in the future.’
He added: ‘Have we got targets for young people who have not been arrested yet? The answer is yes.
‘But we are not just waiting outside schools to pick them up, we are acting on intelligence.
‘If you know you have had your DNA taken and it is on a database then you will think twice about committing burglary for a living. Already this year some 169 under-18s have had their profiles uploaded.’
The officer, who asked not to be named, made the astonishing admission after a Freedom of Information request reveal the startling figures in Camden in London.
LibDem parliamentary candidate for Holborn and St Pancras, Jo Shaw, obtained the figures and was shocked at the findings.
Ms Shaw said: ‘Storing the DNA of innocent people as young as 10 is unlikely to solve Camden’s crime problems, but is a costly way of stigmatising young people.
‘If you’re innocent, you shouldn’t have your data kept for years. DNA samples, which are taken by police after an arrest is made, are turned into a number known as a profile and are kept on a national database indefinitely.’
Camden’s representative at the national Youth Parliament, Axel Landin, said: ‘Building a catalogue of people they think will be prominent criminals in the future sounds like a renegade justice system.
‘Someone who is not convicted of a crime is no more guilty in the eyes of the law than someone who has never been investigated so their DNA should be destroyed.
Chief Inspector Sean Wilson, of Camden Police, said: ‘The DNA database is a nationwide one.
‘Legislation governing the recording and retention of DNA is fully adhered to by Camden Police.’
New Government proposals state that youngsters who have only been arrested once for minor offences and been found not guilty will have their DNA profiles destroyed when they reach 18.
5 responses so far ↓
daedalus // June 8, 2009 at 2:48 am
how many jews have their dna taken?
that group is the largest collection of
swindlers, whiners, liars, pedophiles
in all of britain, most likely
nothing // June 14, 2009 at 10:37 am
all assets of superficial differences are just means of perception control. The real question is what is stopping honest people from around the world uniting as a single sovereign entity which would have unprecidented influence in all areas of human life. when is you coming back to give the news, the last one was on june 6th. something interesting is going to happen it seems, it must be understood how the collective works as a single entity.those who manipulate it have the keys of the ’societies’
pjwalker911 // June 14, 2009 at 11:04 pm
“uniting as a single sovereign entity” isn’t the answer. It boils down to decentralization of power, not centralizing it. That means peoples who are attached to a certain region should unite among themselves to assert sovereignty against globalist influences. If that means secession or the creation of new sovereign states, then so be it. I would approve the world uniting on some set of libertarian principles, but agreeing to take care of their own business and live in harmony with their neighbors who in turn decide their own fate, tending to their own borders, forming their own self-governance, etc. Such universal values would result in prosperity, security and freedom. Going the other direction of unification and amalgamation only result in more poverty, more socialism, more tyranny etc.
I have been out of action due to circumstances but should be more active with this blog in the next few weeks.
wil // June 15, 2009 at 2:21 am
“the world uniting as a single sovereign entity ”
Say what? It’s the nature of government bureaucracies to be inefficient and frequently pernicious. I’d rather have 200 or so inefficient bureaucracies in some degree of competition with each other than one overwhelming global moloch.
A loose collaboration of independent liberterian entities would better for human freedom and prosperity.
pjwalker911 // June 15, 2009 at 6:56 am
That’s it Wil, the key to human freedom in this world is that “loose collaboration of independent liberterian entities”. Truth is governments are more pernicious than inefficient, because they use inefficiency to grind people down to dust and obedience. The Soviet System was a perfected example of this kind of social experiment.