“Innocence is a vague term” say Greater Manchester Police
My campaign for a fairer system on Criminal Records Bureau checks and Police DNA retention continues.
Frequent readers will remember that I have been highlighting for a while now the injustices in the current CRB system, where rumours, hearsay and spent convictions are revealed on many people’s disclosures. The campaign for reform continues, and I have heard from dozens of people unfairly penalised by the current unfair laws.
A related topic is DNA retention by the Police. At present, despite the European Courts ruling the practive illegal, the government still allows the Police in this country to keep DNA records of innocent people on their database. This needless and worrying invasion of our civil liberties needs to stop.
I have asked a number of formal questions on both of these topics to the Greater Manchester Police Authority in recent times, through Bury Council’s representatives on that body. The latest question on DNA retention of innocent people came in February, and I find its answer is very worrying.
The GMPA said “some people who are arrested in connection with an offence but who subsequently are never charged or against whom no further action is taken still have their fingerprints and DNA taken and retained”
This is a breach of the law. But more worrying was the next passage, which said: “Simply because an individual is not later charged in connection with the offence with which they were arrested or no further action is taken or indeed is acquitted when the matter goes to court, does not necessarily mean they are “innocent” of that offence… Innocent is a vague term that does not adequately deal with the various stages in a criminal case. A simple example could be for instance, where a criminal offence has been committed, but an individual is not charged with that offence since the CPS do not feel that a prosecution would be in the public interest, or indeed where is insufficient evidence to charge.”
I find that very strange and worrying indeed. Remember that that is the official answer from the Greater Manchester Police Authority, and that they are really saying that in their eyes someone who is not charged or is acquitted of an offence is not innocent.
They are also really saying that “innocence is a vague term.” To my understanding, it is absolutely not. Innocent people are innocent until proven otherwise. Even where the Police think they’re guilty, even where they’ve got off on technicalities, they are still innocent. It might be annoying sometimes, but it’s the law and the fundamental basis of how we live. The Police and CPS need to try again to get a conviction, and if they can’t, people are innocent and that’s that. And their DNA should not be taken and kept.
If the Police consider someone not innocent even when the courts have said so, what kind of justice can there be for those seeking to get on with their lives in peace?
GMPA also appear to be saying that even where the CPS have said that a conviction would not be in the public interest, this can be over-ridden by the Police if they wish to keep DNA records. Again, I find this disturbing. What right do the Polic ehave to make this decision and break the law?
I really don’t like that response from the GMPA. It’s not on that our Police have such a loose definition of innocent.
Rick
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March 12th, 2010 at 7:28 am
I feel that you are mixing two different issues.
What risks to civil liberty there might be in the Police (or indeed, any other official body) in holding DNA records is something I don’t see. After all, unless I’m missing something in your argument, where’s the risk?
But I do accept that the holding of the other information that a CRB check might reveal can be extremely dangerous. In that respect, a thought occurred to me which perhaps you might be able to shed some light on.
How long does it take to get the results of a CRB enquiry, and who can make such an enquiry? For example, is it possible for a member of a Crown Court or High Court Jury to seek such information on a defendent, without informing the Court, during the course of a trial? If so, that would turn “due process” upside-down.
As for the comments from the Police that you’ve quoted – they call into question the role of the Police, and the very basis of our criminal justice system. On the face of it, those remarks were appalling.
Keep up the fight! You might not get rid of CRB checks, but you might just succeed in getting them to fulfill a justifiable role, which is clearly within the Law of the Land, rather than (as appears to be the case), a blight on the lives of innocent people, simply for the sake of nailing the guilty.
March 12th, 2010 at 8:55 am
There are risks with the Police holding DNA records on people not guilty of anything. Security of that DNA info cannot be guaranteed, for one thing. But my real point is that DNA information is not the business of anyone unless required after the commission of a criminal offence. The Police’s government-sanctioned retention of DNA from those not guilty is an affront to my freedom to keep this DNA information out of the hands of the Police (who probably wouldn’t, but might, use it for their own improper purposes) and is also illegal. Let’s be clear, the police and government are breaking the law.
For regular people a CRB can be returned in 6-12 weeks. I think there are safeguards in most circumstances that stop information on CRBs being revealed in trials. Which is a good thing, but completely at odds with the fact that information on hearsay, rumour, acquittals and unproven allegations is available to would-be employers!
As it stands, I could get into a dispute with a neighbour, say. Out of spite, he could report me to the Police for child abuse. This would result in an investigation, a complete exonoration, but the information that I was accused of and investigated for child abuse could then appear on my CRB disclosure next time I went for a job. That is grossly unfair and needs to be stopped.
The power currently resides with the Police who, as they have shown, think that “innocence” is a vague term.
All very worrying and it needs to change. We need independent panels and proper rights of appeal.
March 19th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Police in England are nothing more than the equivilant of the playground bully that works directly for the filthy rich that are fortunate enough to rule our land, thing is that they thieve our money to pay for it. Think…why is that a soldier fighting for our country that risks his life and come home with hs legs missing is only paid a fraction of what they get? I always remember my grandad telling me as a boy that politics always comes full cirlcle and he was right, I mean just look around, we aren’t even allowed to protest our injustices anymore, its just like we live behind the iron curtain, where has all the opportunity gone for people who are willing to get off their backside and work. LEts face is, he can’t even buy his own own home, we are all just serfs working for the right to breathe because there is nothing left over. Nature has proven that a man has far more efforts left over after working to provide his for his family wth his labours just like any other animal in the world. So who is stealing our labour for themselves? I have built 33 houses by myself in y life and find that I’m not even allowed to keep one of them. Somebody isn’t pulling their weight because if we all did that we wouldn’t have a housing crisis. Even the birds are allowed to make a nest for themselves. We have slavery in this country where we fear our government, year by year they erode our civil liberties and tighten their grip, after all, they only know they are powerfull if they flex their muscles don’t they? I hate my country and I am not proud to be British. I want out!! They are nothing more than oil thieves and corrupt bent tirants. I will take a revolution where they turn our armies guns onto us before they give up their positions. I want rid of the house of lords because they treat us like idiots by giving us a puppet fall guy to blame every time we are not happy called a prime minister (who has no real power because the USA tell us what to do). The DNA will only be misused, it is already on the hands of the USA not our own country and it wont be long before they start giving us chip implants at birth under the guise of it being for our own good as usual, ie “if your heart stops beating we can quickly dispatch an ambulance” or “if your kid goes missing we will know where they are” We have to toughen up, no more mr nice guy. From now on when I hear of a tragedy where someone has gone off the rails and commited an attrosity against someone else and they start a campaign for change they wont get my suport because the govenment love the lowest common denominator, we are all like sheep. However isnt is strange that when a bent coper starts killing innocents they dont remove the gone from them as a whole like us, no, they get “re-training” BASTARDS!!!!