HEAVENS ABOVE! The police are to be allowed to keep tabs on DNA samples from
innocent people without their consent. Is this good or bad? New
快猫短视频 reckons it鈥檚 鈥渢ime for a bit of fury. And a full and open debate鈥�
(5 May, p 3).
Bob Ainsworth, a junior Home Office minister with responsibilities for crime
reduction and police and community safety, told me that two recent appeal cases
highlighted difficulties in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984. He
said that in one case, compelling DNA evidence linked a suspect to a rape, and
in another instance tied a suspect to a murder. By the time the matches were
made, however, both defendants had either been acquitted or their cases dropped.
The 1984 act specified that since the profiles had been taken as evidence for
these cases only, the samples had to be destroyed, and information derived from
them could not be used. Neither suspect could be tried, raising the issue of
whether the law relating to the retention and use of DNA samples after a
person鈥檚 acquittal should be changed.
Ainsworth said that the House of Lords had subsequently ruled that where a
DNA sample should have been destroyed but was not, the trial judge should be
allowed to decide whether it could be used as evidence. The position was
unsatisfactory, and the government decided that retaining DNA evidence should be
put on a proper legal footing. Hence they included it in the Criminal Justice
and Police Act 2001, said the minister.
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As an MP for 39 years, I believe that all information should be held,
regardless of civil-liberties considerations. I have seen too many innocent
people dogged by suspicion when DNA evidence could have spared them.
The new act lets the police retain any fingerprints and DNA samples that they
take from crime suspects, whether or not they are acquitted. However, Ainsworth
said that the police can only use the prints or samples they keep for work on
crime prevention and detection, in the investigation of an offence, or in a
prosecution.
SPLASHING about at the swimming pool can be great fun, but if the pool is
very busy, lifeguards may not notice if someone gets into trouble. New
快猫短视频 reported that a French company has devised a system called
Poseidon which can watch swimmers through a network of underwater and overhead
video cameras (24 March, p 23). It sounds an alarm if anyone is having
difficulties. I sent a copy of the article to the then Department for Education
and Employment and asked if its ministers knew about Poseidon.
Jacqui Smith, who was the schools minister, replied that she was responsible
for swimming in schools as part of the physical-education curriculum. She said
she was interested in the Poseidon system but considered it expensive, and
agreed with 快猫短视频 that local authorities should invest directly
in quality swimming teaching.
Smith added that she had set up a Swimming Advisory Group, consisting of
representatives of swimming associations. The group includes the Royal Life
Saving Society, which is looking at ways of increasing the number of children
able to swim at least 25 metres by the time they finish their primary school
education. Smith said the group was looking at the problems that schools face in
providing swimming lessons and at delivering water-safety education. The group
was also considering proposals for improving the quality of swimming teaching.
She added that the group would draw up plans for action, and hoped to announce
some of these by the end of this year.