Because the Police now perceive the need to drag just about everyone and their dog into the Police Station for DNA sampling, the two pages of caution urged upon the Police in the Police and Criminal Evidence ACT (PACE) before taking such a drastic step are now routinely thrown into the wind by the Police who are taught by their superiors to always quote the one get out clause known as " “The necessity for a prompt arrest” even when these arrests happen days after aledged incidents and the identities of the people thus inconvenienced and stigmatized are pecfectly well known to the Police. Not only does this break the third principle of the Data Protection act 1998, at a local level this totally undermines confidence in the Police and kills any community policing initiatives, where the Police tries to mediate instead of being so heavy handed. Join discussion...

Some commentators say "he has lost the plot". I say spot on David Davis for mentioning as an example of the erosion of our civil liberties the abominable national DNA data base. Join discussion...