Thomas Scott ([info]thomascott) wrote,
@ 2008-12-04 23:02:00
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Minitruth
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/04/law-genetics

A welcome pro-libertarian decision by the European Court Of Human Rights, the notion of keeping innocent people's DNA records on file dovetails disturbingly in with the British government's introduction of National Identity cards.
The inference of all this is that under Gordon Brown's government the concept of freedom is to protect the public from itself.
This is a deeply misanthropic smokescreen for what is in reality the creation of an - as of yet embryonic - police state.
Add into all this the prevalence of closed-circuit TV cameras in the UK.

http://www.newstatesman.com/200610020022

There seems something cliched in making an Orwellian connection between all these modes of 'public-protection'...
I wonder is Gordie suitably dour to cut the mustard at The Ministry Of Truth.

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(Anonymous)
2008-12-05 02:16 am UTC (link)
There is a problem. The Chief Constables will tell you that they dont keep the DNA.

It is in fact kept by another non accountable body, the NPIA.

NPIA, which has taken on the roles of the Police Information Technology Organisation (Pito) and the police learning organisation Centrex, was formally launched on 1 April 2007.

The NPIA is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) sponsored and funded by the Home Office. The NPIA will have a budget of around £700m in its first year.

The NPIA website says that NPIA will support the police service by providing expertise in areas as diverse as information and communications technology, support to information and intelligence sharing, core police processes, managing change and recruiting, developing and deploying people, as well as taking over responsibility for a number of IT systems, including the Police National Computer, the National DNA Database and IDENT1, the national fingerprint and palm print system.

In other words political control of key police functions, because they report to the minister, not the ministry.

Peter Holland CBE DL is Chairman of the NPIA board, A journalist by profession, he was at Reuters for 23 years.

So, how do you now get the Chief Constables to remove people from the Database when its run by another organisation all together. (still without legal base as admitted by Lord West, until some of the current crop of legislation goes through).

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[info]thomascott
2008-12-06 09:57 am UTC (link)
Thanks for that addendum anon, presumably the NPIA will, in time, have to comply with the court's ruling but yes, it would seem like it's existence will make the process more protracted.

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