Putting school kids in the criminal database

When I first saw the title "Put young children on DNA list, police urge", I thought of those fingerprint cards. The ones where you take your child’s fingerprints and keep it in case they ever get kidnapped. So when I read the article, expecting to see a "keep kids safe" theme, I was horrified to see it was a "identify the bad kids" article.

The director of the Scotland Yard wants teachers to identify potential "future criminals" – kids who misbehave in elementary school. He wants their DNA recorded in a database so that they can identify them when they commit crimes later in life.

So not only would your child be suspended for carrying his dad’s Leatherman to school but now he’ll also be branded for life as a "potential criminal".