Teacher wins police DNA battle???
March 23rd, 2006A teacher accused of hitting a child with a ruler, but never prosecuted, has won a legal battle to have her DNA sample and fingerprints destroyed.
Philippa Jones, from Birmingham, was arrested in June last year following allegations she hit a boy aged eight.
The High Court said her DNA sample, fingerprints and photograph should have been destroyed within 28 days.
She will also receive £250 damages from West Midlands Police for false imprisonment and assault.
What the question now is: Have they been destroyed and who can verify that they have?
I’m under no illusions about the police will have, in all probability, retained this womans fingerprints and DNA on their database despite her ‘victory’ in the courts. In situations like this, who is independent of the Police and has the authority to actually check the PNC that this womans records have been destroyed?
March 23rd, 2006 at 3:36 pm
The whole point of this is that she has won a court battle to have her records destroyed. This sets an important precedent; now anyone who has had their fingerpriints and DNA stored without a crime being comitted can appy to have the products of their violation erased, without having to go to court to establish wether or not they have the right to have this done.
Next, this also sets up an intereting situation; under the current ID proposals, everyone is to be compelled to submit their fingerprints and retina scans as if they were criminals. Why should the government be able to hold your fingerprints and iris scans if you are not a criminal for the NIR, but not the police? It doesn’t make any sense at all. No one should be able to hold your DNA, retina scan and fingerprints unless you are a convicted criminal. Period.
As for proving that your records have been destroyed, there are services that produce certificates of destruction for any type of documentation. You will get one of these, where the people in charge swear an oath that the material has been destroyed.