I CAN鈥橳 remember a time when the tabloids, broadsheets and newscasters were
so preoccupied with soaring crime statistics. Rachel Nowak鈥檚 recent report on
work by the University of Technology in Sydney and elsewhere on the usefulness
of trace elements from documents鈥攔ansom notes, altered business contracts
and the like鈥攊n catching criminals seemed timely
(22 July, p 10). I asked
Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, if his experts at the Home Office were aware of
this work.
Straw replied that the Forensic Science Service (FSS) uses comparable
techniques, and that it agreed that the Australian work has potential. However,
contamination could be a problem, as might the need for 鈥渃lean room鈥� procedures
not normally available for this kind of work. Monthly updates of reference
samples would also be required from each and every supplier in Britain and
overseas.
Although the FSS does not possess the equipment to which Nowak refers, it can
use machines at other organisations. To purchase its own the FSS would have to
ensure that the operational benefits would justify the investment鈥攚hich
Straw says is not considered to be the case at present.
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So be it, but something will have to be done to persuade the courts to give
weight to evidence that is less than scientifically conclusive. I just hope that
our system is not so complacent that it ignores worthwhile overseas
developments.
鈥淓MBARRASS them and shame them!鈥� And quite right, too. A New
快猫短视频 reader tells me that my comments on the horrors of excessive
motor vehicle speeds touched a nerve with him鈥�45 000 deaths a year in the
European Union alone and countless devastating injuries
(15 July, p 50). He
wanted to know if the Transport Research Laboratory, or indeed Parliament, had
ever considered the idea of fitting all vehicles with an extra, external,
digital speedometer. It would be as visible to the passer-by as the vehicle鈥檚
registration number, and cost practically nothing to fit.
If drivers went over the speed limit, the external speedometer would reveal
the fact to one and all. That, suggests the writer, might in itself be enough to
restrain most normally law-abiding citizens from dangerous bursts of madness
down the highway. Meanwhile, police cameras and closed-circuit television
systems would be able to record the speed accurately.
The writer lives in Darlington, where the local MP is Health Secretary Alan
Milburn. Clearly the hospitals, which are part of Milburn鈥檚 responsibilities,
would greatly benefit from fewer road accidents. I advised the writer to get in
touch with Milburn. Meanwhile, though, I鈥檓 attracted to the idea and intend to
sound it out with my various contacts.