I may be getting more right wing in my old-age, but if removing the DNA of persons not charged with any offence from the national DNA database means offenders go free, that is just mad.
A European legal ruling today means fingerprints and DNA samples can't be held unless you are convicted of a crime.
200,000 people would not currently be on the database if that were the case. (That's according to the police who hold the data. The Tories say 1,000,000. God help us if they end up in charge of the economy and have to do proper sums.)
But because they are on the database, nearly 14,000 crimes have been linked to people involved, including
114 murders
116 rapes
55 attempted murders and
68 sex offences.
Personally, I would much rather have a national DNA database than murderers and sex offenders at liberty to offend again. You can have a sample from me today.
And when can I have my ID card
