Ok peeps – we now know for certain we are livin in a Police state with Big Brother watchin us. Not only does the UK have the most CC TV cameras sited around the cities n towns, but now we have the largest DNA database – supposedly composed only of criminal offenders – but now we know for deffo it don’t, it also contains DNA info on innocent people who just happen to have had the misfortume of being arrested, nevermind whether they are finally found to be not guilty of all wrong doing – the police still keep that data on file even though it is supposed to be removed once charges are dropped!!!!!!!
Also, 75% of young black men are on this database – vastly out of proportion to the general population statistics!!! How long before this appertains to bikers do you reckon????? We are already blamed for the majority of RTAs in which we are involved, routinely stopped at the roadside for ridiculous reasons etc !!
Quoted from the Times online at:
“Police are routinely arresting people simply to record their DNA profiles on the national database, according to a report published today.
It also states that three quarters of young black men are on the database. The finding risks stigmatising a whole section of society, the equality watchdog has warned.
The revelations will fuel the debate about the DNA database, the world’s largest. They are included in a report by the Human Genetics Commission, an independent government advisory body. It criticises the piecemeal development of the database and questions how effective it is in helping the police to investigate and solve crimes.
Jonathan Montgomery, commission chairman, said that “function creep” over the years had transformed a database of offenders into one of suspects. Almost one million innocent people are now on the DNA database.
Professor Montgomery said: “It’s now become pretty much routine to take DNA samples on arrest, so large numbers of people on the DNA database will be there not because they have been convicted, but because they’ve been arrested.”
Recorded crime has fallen every year since 2004-05, but the number of people arrested in England and Wales annually is rising. Latest figures show that arrests rose by 6 per cent to 1.43 million in 2005 and a further 4 per cent to 1.48 million in 2006-07.
Professor Montgomery said there was some evidence that people were arrested to retain the DNA information even though they might not have been arrested in other circumstance.
He said that a retired senior police officer told the commission: “It is now the norm to arrest offenders for everything if there is a power to do so. It is apparently understood by serving police officers that one of the reasons . . . is so that DNA can be obtained.” He said that the tradition of only arresting someone when dealing with serious offences had collapsed.
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission said the proportion of black men on the database created an impression that one race group represented an “alien wedge” of criminality.
The report’s foreword states that the DNA profiles of 75 per cent of black men aged 18 to 35 are recorded. But the commission admitted that it had “hardened up slightly” earlier estimates quoted in Parliament.
The Crime and Security Bill heralded in last week’s Queen’s Speech proposes cutting to six years the time that innocent people’s profiles are kept. Those arrested but not charged, or those cleared in court, currently remain on the database for ever. There are no plans to reduce police powers to take samples from everyone arrested.
Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, has said that innocent people should not have their DNA retained by the police once they are acquitted of a crime.
The commission report said that the database should be placed on a clear statutory basis and overseen by an independent authority. Isabella Sankey, of Liberty, said: “Not only are we stockpiling the most sensitive information of innocents who have never been charged, let alone convicted, we are also creating a perverse incentive to arrest people solely to get their details on the database.”
The Home Office suggested that the over-representation of young black men on the database was linked to disproportionality in other areas of the criminal justice system.”
A statue was unveiled on October 22nd, at the entrance to the Autodromo do Parkalgar circuit in Portimao Paulo Pinheiro by the track owners, to pay tribute to Craig Jones who raced for circuit owners Parkalgar Honda. 
