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Innocents are robbed
Thursday 28th May 2009, 8:20AM BST.
LETTER: I was appalled to read about a man who applied for a tax disc for his car, only to be arrested on suspicion of having a fraudulent MoT certificate.
The reason was that the colour of the ink was a lighter shade of green.
This man, who was totally innocent, was taken to a police station where his fingerprints were taken, and a DNA swab taken.
They also interviewed him for a length of time until proof of authenticity was verified by the DVLA.
In my opinion, if someone is innocent, then surely DNA swabs and fingerprints should be destroyed because the police are robbing someone of their liberty.
Trevor Mytton
Shrewsbury
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if someone is an innocent & law abiding citizen then it really doesn’t matter if there DNA & fingerprints are on record if anything it is more useful as they can be eliminated from any future inquiries with not need to disrupt the persons day to day life!!
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I never read this story?
As all MOT’s are updated ‘on-line’, I would have thought that thats the police would have rather made a quick call to VOSA rather than put their mugs of tea and donunts down and actually arrests someone – there again I could be wrong.
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Aran… I suppose that this is all part of this countries wonderful new ‘guilty until proven innocent’ ethos?
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Of course you would say that Aran. Tell me has it happened to you?
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Aran… Hear hear. If you are a law abiding citizen you have nothing to worry about, agree with you entirely.
Lucy W… You must have really been upset by the Police at some stage.
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Lucy W – The police no longer eat donuts that is a common misconception. We now have to make sure we get our 5 fruits a day. Banana, apple, oranges or if we are being exotic a bit of mango fruit.
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Ken Eddy and Aran, I both disagree with your argument – ie you have nothing to hide why worry about the police having your DNA. The problem is what they do with the DNA information and how they use or abuse it – before long if not already guess that they will start to sell the databse to insurance companies etc etc.
Following your argument through, why do we not all have GPS chips inserted into our bodies at birth.
ANd how well do you trust the police – who effectively polices the police, they are a law unto themselves, look at the policing of the marches in LOndon this year. Also look how the police regularly break the law with their reckless driving.
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why should the police and government hold an innocent persons details!
They cannot be trusted with the information, how many times have the clowns lost it.
It’s a pity we don’t have a police force instead of a PC pandering, target driven, invisible service.
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#3 its not a new way of doing things the term beyond reasonable doubt has seen many people do time for crimes they have not committed.
#4 yea they got my DNA FP’s tat info shoe size etc & whilst i have not always been 100% innocent in my youth i am fine with the fact that the info on my police file can be used to avoid the bill knocking on my door or disrupting my place of work. anyway lets face it the contents of each profile dont contain in comparison the most sensitive of information such as information our current government has lost. it just really seems to me on the grand scheme of things to be quite a minor thing to be complaining about.
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This is all about your rights.
Why should the Police have the right to take your finger prints and a DNA sample, and if later proved innocent, continue to hold them?
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There is absolutely no need to produce an MOT certificate, or insurance certificate for that matter.
Those details are all online – as most of you will probably know from taxing your car online.
So – It would (should have !!) have been easy for the police to access this information and prove whether the vehicle had a valid MOT, or not, irrespective of what colour the actual paper certificate was !
And as for keeping DNA etc etc – anyone woh thinks along the lines:
If I’m innocent / done nothing wrong then I’ve nothing to worry about REALLY needs to WAKE UP, before it’s too late.
NO ONE – least of all the police, and government can be trusted with such information.
As to DNA etc making it easier to control crime / identify real criminals / terrorists is an entirely irrelevant and spurious argument.
Any intelligent person intent on embarking on a life of crime / terrorism can evade that system – and …
The only people this sort of thing REALLY controls are the simple, law abiding people like you and me. And once you understand THAT, .. THEN you can start to see what it’s all REALLY about.
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If having a DNA database is such a good idea why not have all police officers, MP’s, Liberals and do gooders automatically entered onto the system !!!
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Lucy W – ZZZZzzzzzzz!
The police haven’t got my fingerprints or DNA but I would have no problem at all with them having it as I have nothing to hide. If your loved one got murdered you would want to see the offender face justice – the scientific developments in DNA over the years has resulted in more and more serious investigations that occurred many years ago being prosecuted. Such offences are not always committed by prolific offenders but by individuals who were seen in the community as ‘law abiding citizens’ and ‘of good character’. Such individuals must have been arrested at some point and had their DNA taken but not been convicted of an offence then. It is only because the police have been able to keep the DNA that they have finally been caught. Lets not go backwards and may those who have committed such serious offences always be looking over their shoulders in fear that one day the police will come knocking on their doors!
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My real concern with having my DNA taken and stored on a Database is that I cannot trust Databases to be infallible, especially when controlled by a Government agency. How secure are these Databases? Is there any possibility, however small, of them being hacked and manipulated? What about human error when details are inputted – could your DNA sample be tagged with someone else’s details and vice versa?
The consequences of an error; be it malicious or otherwise, could be catastrophic to say the least. I too have nothing to hide, however I am fearful of entrusting the Police (or Government) with a sample of my DNA.
The benefits of using DNA to identify those people who break the law are substantial, I’m sure most would agree? But maintaining a Database of DNA is another issue completely, yes it can speed up the detection process and provide evidence which can be used to prosecute offenders, but what if the Database goes wrong somehow, could you find yourself trying to prove your own innocence because the computer got it wrong and supplied your name to the Police?
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A recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights said it was illegal to retain DNA of those not charged with an offence. Clearly DNA evidence can be very useful in solving crimes. However, this must be weighed against the infringement on the civil liberties of the majority. We are all entitled to be treated as innocent until proven guilty.
There is a view which has recently gained credence in some quarters that the state should have these new powers over its citizens in order to protect the majority. However it should not be missed that these laws apply equally to the innocent, hence all our basic rights are being encroached and we will not understand until it is too late that the state has actually removed most of our protections from the state itself.
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The police have not got my fingerprints or dna becouse i obey the law .However it is a free country and if some one has done nothing wrong then why should these details be held . Nothing what so ever with “if you aint done nothing wrong” that argument apart from being a school yard defence for taking some ones private details is absolute rubbish . Where will it stop??? police state next is it blimey some police officers take off there id number when dealing with a demonstration whats all that about??? when the ones in charge walk the walk we will.
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As well as giving our DNA, why don’t we all get chips inserted allowing the governemnt to monitor where we are at all times. After all, if we aren’t doing anything wrong, we have nothing to worry about do we???
hmmmmmmmmmmmm..
Orwell is the new Nostradamus.
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Re # 12. Most Police Officers have their DNA on file, and all have their fingerprints on file. Makes sense heh!!!
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If you are innocent then you have nothing to worry about!!! What fool would believe that?
This article is precisely about the police making a mistake! What happens when they make a mistake with the DNA samples and you’re locked up for good?????
What happens when DNA samples or data is ‘lost’ and is used to fabricate evidence. If you were Innocent you would have lots to worry about – if you were a crook you would have nothing to worry about becuase you would know way s around the system.
If the police were perfect and made no mistakes then you would have nothing to worry about.
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Dianne, Zzzzz
I’ve got no issue with the DNA Database, just surprised that the Police didn’t use the MOT Database.
Grant: re#17, we don’t need chips and our movement are practically monitored, especially by our banking/credit cards. That’s why I always use cash, no no-one can detect where I am from financial records.
Marco: re#19. Good point re mistakes. How do we know if there is a mistake? It’s a bit like how do we know if a word is spelt wrong in the dictionary?
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