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CCTV and DNA – A final word

GE 2010 I would really like to move away from the government's approach to CCTV and DNA, but things like this (from the Daily Mirror)…

Women will be more at risk on the streets under the Tories, Home Secretary Alan Johnson warned last night. He said attacks on women would be more likely as the Conservatives were not committed to funding CCTV and wanted to ditch suspects' DNA

…just keep provoking me (as do some of the conclusions reached by the BBC's 'Reality Check' – which manages to imply that keeping innocent people on the DNA database is a useful tool); so I wanted to have one last word – based entirely around official, unarguable, statistics.

Firstly, on DNA evidence (from the Daily Mail):

Home Office research shows that – despite the massive expansion in the Government database – only 3,666 crimes are detected every year with links to an existing DNA profile.

That is one in every 1,300 of the 4.9million crimes carried out, and just one in 350, or 0.3 per cent, of the 1.3million crimes solved by police, according to the home affairs select committee.

The figure included crimes where the DNA was taken from a suspect the police were already questioning, then matched to the crime scene.

Crimes that a suspect asked to be taken into consideration were also included, even though only the first offence may have involved DNA.

Secondly, on CCTV evidence (from the Evening Standard):

Metropolitan Police figures show a 71 per cent drop in the number of crimes "in which CCTV was involved" from 416,000 in 2003-04 to 121,770 in 2008-09. The number of these crimes which led to a charge, summons or caution fell from 47,000 to 23,000.

The proportion of all crimes solved using CCTV in London fell from half in 2003-04 to one in seven in 2008-09.

A report by a House of Lords committee last year found that an estimated £200 million has been spent on new cameras in London in the 10 years up until 2006.

This is not party-political, it is just trying to counter Alan Johnson's scaremongering, lying tactics on DNA and CCTV. The Conservatives, Lib Dems, SNP, Plaid…almost every other party standing for election have committed to regulating surveillance and removing innocent people from the NDNA database. But the government just won't admit they are wrong in their rush to appear 'tough on crime'.

I hope, this is the final word…

By Dylan Sharpe

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCTV, DNA database
  • http://ampers.wordpress.com Andrew Ampers Taylor

    I think you should talk less about this, and more about a perceived NuLabour secret agenda.
    Not that they are putting up CCTVs or collecting DNAs, not why they are saying they are doing it, but delve deeper and ask “what other possible motive could there be?”
    When I was a sales manager I used to tell my salesmen, ask for an objection and when you got one, ask “in addition to this is there any other…” and when you got the next, keep on repeating till you heard the last objection they had. And just answer this, as this is the real objection.
    The same with Government, they never give the real reason first, you have to keep digging until you strike gold.
    Ampers

  • NeverSurrender

    Ampers – I completely agree with you about NuCommunists having a secret agenda. It may be that they wish to stifle all possible protest and opposition against the horrors that they have in store for us. However, I think that issues concerning civil liberties should be at the top of the agenda for debate. NuCommunists have stealthily turned our country into a prison in which we are all treated as suspects and criminals. The future is very bleak indeed if we fail to keep reminding people of the freedoms they have surrendered to the state. CCTV, the DNA Database, ID Cards, snooping & spying, draconian police powers and so on are every bit as important as immigration and the economy. They have a direct and extremely negative effect on the lives of millions of innocent people and therefore they must be given the importance they deserve. Maybe we shall find NuCommunists true agenda by highlighting the issue but we must not stop talking about it.

  • http://faustiesblog.blogspot.com FaustiesBlog

    It’s becoming increasingly evident that laws are not implemented for the public good – they’re there for the benefit of the ruling classes.
    There is no justice in this country any more.

  • Gareth

    Can it really be routine now to arrest someone and take “fingerprints, a palm print, a retina scan and a DNA swab.”?
    http://tinyurl.com/2adxkul

  • NeverSurrender

    I think that they are terrified that we may rebel against their corrupt and repressive system. They don’t want us to upset the cosy little number that they’ve got going for themselves. Yet rebellion is occasionally essential. It is often the only way to change something rotten. By keeping us under constant surveillance and by knowing everything about us we have nowhere to hide and no way to escape from them should we become too vocal in our protests. They have taken our freedom and our rights from us and turned our country into a giant prison to prevent us from bringing about the change that they fear so much. We must not be silent on this issue!