I wonder if any of those Policemen who seemed so eager to baton the heads of sixteen year old children on the streets of London yesterday, with a certain amount of glee, realise that their jobs are also on the line under the ConDem cuts agenda!
That kid you bludgeoned might be protesting for your job too!
Proud are you?
Showing posts with label Policing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Policing. Show all posts
03/01/2010
Sharing DNA with a Criminal Cousin
Former Policeman, Plaid Gwersyllt, on the Plaid Wrecsam blog notes that North Wales Police is rather slow in implementing the European Court ruling that the DNA of innocents should be removed from the police databases.
The campaign to remove "innocent" DNA is one that confuses me. My understanding, which is limited, is that my fingerprints are absolutely unique. You can't look at my fingerprints and say Ah! That proves that he is his father's son or his son's father! But that this isn't true of DNA.
Although my DNA is unique I share some of it with my family, and it is possible to do a paternity test to prove that my sprogs are mine and not the milkman's by using DNA.
As far as I know North Wales police don't have any of my DNA. A genealogical service does hold it; I paid them to take a sample so they could see how I am related to others who have paid them to compare samples. They regularly e-mail me to say that "Jo Blogs probably shares a paternal ancestor with you" etc.
Jeffrey Gafoor was convicted of the murder of Lynette White, because the police had the DNA of his cousin's convicted son, and that was sufficient to narrow the suspect range to members of the Gafoor family.
Even if all innocent people's absolute personal DNA is removed from the database, won't the DNA that the innocent share with the guilty still be on the database?
Even if I am as pure as the driven snow, but I have a criminal father, grandfather, uncle, son, grandson, nephew, second cousin twice removed etc, then won't my shared DNA still be on file, despite my personal innocence?
If this is the case isn't the argument about innocents' DNA a bit futile?
09/01/2008
Policing & Politics
Professor Dylan Jones Evans makes a point on his blog that many have made before about the controversial subjects on which Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom has commented over the years. The point that whatever the validity of his views the Chief Constable's job is to catch criminals, not to comment on political matters. Or as the Prof puts it legislation is the job of the lawmakers in Parliament and not that of a civil servant such as himself.
I find this attitude difficult to understand, and if it is extended to other publicly funded occupations it starts to sound ridiculous at best and dangerous at worst.
If there are problems in health care provisions I want to hear from doctors and nurses on the matter, so that I can inform my view on the subject. Would the Prof say their job is to administer to the sick, not to comment on health policy; health policy is the job of policy makers in parliament?
Likewise would the Prof say that it is a teacher's job to teach and that teachers are wrong if they raise educational issues of political concern? Would he say that teachers shouldn't inform debate on an area of their expertise because they are not elected to Parliament?
When there are problems facing the Welsh economy do we expect to hear the opinions of leading experts in the field, such as Professor Dylan Jones Evans? Or do we tell him to shut up and go back to the job he's paid to do, lecturing students, and to leave the job of solving Welsh economic problems to the elected members in Cardiff Bay?
If there are serious issues facing policing and the application of law and order I want to hear what the experts in the subject who work in the field on a daily basis have to say about them, because that is the only way that the ordinary members of the public can be informed enough to make a judgment about how good a job the lawmakers in Parliament are doing in drafting the legislation that the police have to implement.
I find this attitude difficult to understand, and if it is extended to other publicly funded occupations it starts to sound ridiculous at best and dangerous at worst.
If there are problems in health care provisions I want to hear from doctors and nurses on the matter, so that I can inform my view on the subject. Would the Prof say their job is to administer to the sick, not to comment on health policy; health policy is the job of policy makers in parliament?
Likewise would the Prof say that it is a teacher's job to teach and that teachers are wrong if they raise educational issues of political concern? Would he say that teachers shouldn't inform debate on an area of their expertise because they are not elected to Parliament?
When there are problems facing the Welsh economy do we expect to hear the opinions of leading experts in the field, such as Professor Dylan Jones Evans? Or do we tell him to shut up and go back to the job he's paid to do, lecturing students, and to leave the job of solving Welsh economic problems to the elected members in Cardiff Bay?
If there are serious issues facing policing and the application of law and order I want to hear what the experts in the subject who work in the field on a daily basis have to say about them, because that is the only way that the ordinary members of the public can be informed enough to make a judgment about how good a job the lawmakers in Parliament are doing in drafting the legislation that the police have to implement.
16/08/2007
Policing should be devolved
Today's edition of the magazine Golwg contains a call from North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom for responsibility for policing in Wales to be given to the Assembly.
Brunstrom says:
Responsibility for Welsh policing will be separated from Westminster before long. I am totally convinced that policing will be devolved in the near future, not immediately, the Assembly isn't ready for us yet, but that direction is clearer now than ever before in my opinion
Policing will be devolved to Cardiff over the long term, there is no doubt that that will happen. Because the world has changed. The law has changed and has developed, the Assembly has become stronger it has more powers
Although policing isn't yet devolved from London it's important that all the police forces in Wales are seen to be local and national services here in Wales. Not as an "army from England" but as a local army that wants to work for the future of Welshness.
Former Home Secretary John Reid, apparently responded to this suggestion when Mr Brunstrom put it to him some time ago with the retort over my dead body, but Brunstrom says in Golwg - He was wrong - he's gone - but I'm still here.
Of course Mr Brunstrom is right, if policing can be devolved to Scotland and the North of Ireland it is wrong that it is not devolved to Wales too; or does the Westminster government think that the people of Wales are too thick, incapable or unruly to run our own policing services for our own needs?
Brunstrom says:
Responsibility for Welsh policing will be separated from Westminster before long. I am totally convinced that policing will be devolved in the near future, not immediately, the Assembly isn't ready for us yet, but that direction is clearer now than ever before in my opinion
Policing will be devolved to Cardiff over the long term, there is no doubt that that will happen. Because the world has changed. The law has changed and has developed, the Assembly has become stronger it has more powers
Although policing isn't yet devolved from London it's important that all the police forces in Wales are seen to be local and national services here in Wales. Not as an "army from England" but as a local army that wants to work for the future of Welshness.
Former Home Secretary John Reid, apparently responded to this suggestion when Mr Brunstrom put it to him some time ago with the retort over my dead body, but Brunstrom says in Golwg - He was wrong - he's gone - but I'm still here.
Of course Mr Brunstrom is right, if policing can be devolved to Scotland and the North of Ireland it is wrong that it is not devolved to Wales too; or does the Westminster government think that the people of Wales are too thick, incapable or unruly to run our own policing services for our own needs?
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