Ruling over crime records database
Press Assoc. - Tuesday, July 22 10:59 am
Police could be forced to remove thousands of criminal records from the national database after a landmark ruling on the holding of personal details.
The Information Tribunal on Monday dismissed appeals from five police forces which were ordered to delete old criminal convictions from the Police National Computer.
The tribunal ruled that keeping the records was in breach of the Data Protection Act, which says personal information should not be kept for longer than necessary.
Police fear the ruling could have "far-reaching implications" for the holding of data.
It could open the door to thousands of people convicted of minor offences when young to apply to have their criminal record removed. Under current policy, criminal records remain on the computer for up to 100 years.
One record held by Humberside Police related to the theft of a 99p packet of meat in 1984. The person involved, who was under 18 at the time, was fined £15.
Another record held by West Midlands Police referred to a theft which took place more than 25 years ago, for which the individual was fined £25. And a third record held by Staffordshire Police related to someone under 14 who was cautioned for a minor assault.
The other records were held by the police forces of Northumbria and Greater Manchester.
The tribunal upheld the ruling of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in November that the holding of the records did not comply with the Data Protection Act.
The Act says personal information must be relevant, up-to-date, and not excessive
What is Headspace?
HEADSPACE refers to psychological privacy. It is the private cognitive shed required for the development of an individual personality. Protection of its borders is essential for human autonomy and the exercise of free will. It is also the technical term for the area surrounding a subject in which their individual odour can be analysed.
It is the title of Amber Marks's satirical account of her encounters with dog handlers, security professionals and government advisors.
What is Dogwatch?
Dogwatch is the name of a secret organisation in Amber's book. It monitors potential threats to Headspace and seeks to inform people of their rights in these confusing times. It is presently focused on developments in surveillance, forensic science, less than lethal weapons, the militarisation of biology and the science of smell. Membership is easy- just send your contributions including any news stories or strange animal sightings to dogwatchuk@googlemail.com.
War on Terror Dogs
"Good pictures and a bit of war dog history in the Sun '"
Thanks very much to latest dogwatch recruit!
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Dogwatch
"The whole point of dogs is to scare people rigid"
Don't set dogs on criminals with allergies, police told
Police dog handlers will have to consider whether criminals have allergies or a fear of dogs before conducting searches in what has been described as the latest example of "namby pamby" policing.
By Gordon Rayner in the Telegraph
Guidelines being drawn up by senior officers will tell dog handlers they should "avoid offending" people with phobias of animals when dogs are used in drug raids and other investigations.
The rules have been produced amid fears that suspects with medical conditions triggered by the presence of dogs, such as asthma, may file costly compensation claims against the police if they suffer an allergy or panic attack during a police raid.
Dog handlers have also been told to take "cultural sensitivities" into account, though reports that dogs would be required to wear specially-designed boots on their paws during searches of mosques and Muslim homes have been flatly denied.
The plans have been ridiculed in the respected force magazine Police Review, with one columnist citing it as the latest diktat from "the polite police".
The anonymous sergeant writes: "The traditional shout of 'stand still or I'll set the dog on you' will presumably have to become 'excuse me, my police dog is quite hairy and might cause alarm as he sinks his fangs into his right thigh. Is that all right with you?'
"The whole point of police dogs is to frighten people rigid, at least those who have just committed a crime and would otherwise make a clean getaway. They should have considered the mental trauma and possible allergic reaction caused by 60lbs of foaming Alsatian clamping its teeth to their extremities before embarking on their criminal escapade."
A serving dog handler, who asked not to be named, said: "I have never heard anything so ridiculous. What's next? Sparing people custody because they have a fear of enclosed spaces?
"This is just another example of namby pamby policing laid down by people who haven't been on the beat in years."
PC Mike Dermody, a former dog handler with Greater Manchester Police, was among those dismissing the need for guidelines, saying: "I have never encountered an incident where we have offended someone. If there is a person with an allergy, we will put them in one room while we search the rest of the house."
And PC David Heaps, a dog handling trainer at Derbyshire Constabulary, said dog handlers were already "mindful not to cause offence".
The controversy arose after Peter Vaughan, the Association of Chief Police Officers' adviser on dogs, said: "The draft guidelines outline a general principle that forces should consider what steps can be taken to avoid offending people during operations.
"This might include different categories of people such as those with a fear of dogs, for example or asthma sufferers who may be sensitive to dog hair."
Mr Vaughan, deputy chief constable of South Wales Police, insisted, however, that "in all operations effective policing will take primacy", meaning dog handlers would not have to take possible allergies into account when tackling violent criminals, for example.
Police dog handlers will have to consider whether criminals have allergies or a fear of dogs before conducting searches in what has been described as the latest example of "namby pamby" policing.
By Gordon Rayner in the Telegraph
Guidelines being drawn up by senior officers will tell dog handlers they should "avoid offending" people with phobias of animals when dogs are used in drug raids and other investigations.
The rules have been produced amid fears that suspects with medical conditions triggered by the presence of dogs, such as asthma, may file costly compensation claims against the police if they suffer an allergy or panic attack during a police raid.
Dog handlers have also been told to take "cultural sensitivities" into account, though reports that dogs would be required to wear specially-designed boots on their paws during searches of mosques and Muslim homes have been flatly denied.
The plans have been ridiculed in the respected force magazine Police Review, with one columnist citing it as the latest diktat from "the polite police".
The anonymous sergeant writes: "The traditional shout of 'stand still or I'll set the dog on you' will presumably have to become 'excuse me, my police dog is quite hairy and might cause alarm as he sinks his fangs into his right thigh. Is that all right with you?'
"The whole point of police dogs is to frighten people rigid, at least those who have just committed a crime and would otherwise make a clean getaway. They should have considered the mental trauma and possible allergic reaction caused by 60lbs of foaming Alsatian clamping its teeth to their extremities before embarking on their criminal escapade."
A serving dog handler, who asked not to be named, said: "I have never heard anything so ridiculous. What's next? Sparing people custody because they have a fear of enclosed spaces?
"This is just another example of namby pamby policing laid down by people who haven't been on the beat in years."
PC Mike Dermody, a former dog handler with Greater Manchester Police, was among those dismissing the need for guidelines, saying: "I have never encountered an incident where we have offended someone. If there is a person with an allergy, we will put them in one room while we search the rest of the house."
And PC David Heaps, a dog handling trainer at Derbyshire Constabulary, said dog handlers were already "mindful not to cause offence".
The controversy arose after Peter Vaughan, the Association of Chief Police Officers' adviser on dogs, said: "The draft guidelines outline a general principle that forces should consider what steps can be taken to avoid offending people during operations.
"This might include different categories of people such as those with a fear of dogs, for example or asthma sufferers who may be sensitive to dog hair."
Mr Vaughan, deputy chief constable of South Wales Police, insisted, however, that "in all operations effective policing will take primacy", meaning dog handlers would not have to take possible allergies into account when tackling violent criminals, for example.
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Dogwatch
Any comments from dogwatch?
Man gets prison for stabbing Redondo Beach police dog
He is sentenced to the maximum of five years and eight months. The German shepherd was injured after being sent in to subdue the man, who had threatened officers at his home.
By Amanda Covarrubias, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
5:30 PM PDT, July 18, 2008
A 40-year-old man convicted of stabbing a Redondo Beach police dog and making criminal threats against two of his ex-girlfriend's adult daughters was sentenced today to five years and eight months in prison.
Jimmie Divo Lunceford was given the maximum term by Torrance Superior Court Judge Sandra A. Thompson, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
Lunceford was convicted March 18 of assault on a police animal, making criminal threats and trying to burglarize the home of one of his ex-girlfriend's daughters.
The assault charge involved a German shepherd named Valor. The dog, which was brought into court by its handler during the trial, was stabbed twice in the side of its neck last year and had to undergo an hourlong surgery.
When police were called to Lunceford's home in Redondo Beach on July 30, 2007, he yelled at them, saying he had a knife and wanted them to shoot him. The police dog was injured after he was sent to try to subdue Lunceford.
amanda.covarrubias @latimes.com
He is sentenced to the maximum of five years and eight months. The German shepherd was injured after being sent in to subdue the man, who had threatened officers at his home.
By Amanda Covarrubias, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
5:30 PM PDT, July 18, 2008
A 40-year-old man convicted of stabbing a Redondo Beach police dog and making criminal threats against two of his ex-girlfriend's adult daughters was sentenced today to five years and eight months in prison.
Jimmie Divo Lunceford was given the maximum term by Torrance Superior Court Judge Sandra A. Thompson, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
Lunceford was convicted March 18 of assault on a police animal, making criminal threats and trying to burglarize the home of one of his ex-girlfriend's daughters.
The assault charge involved a German shepherd named Valor. The dog, which was brought into court by its handler during the trial, was stabbed twice in the side of its neck last year and had to undergo an hourlong surgery.
When police were called to Lunceford's home in Redondo Beach on July 30, 2007, he yelled at them, saying he had a knife and wanted them to shoot him. The police dog was injured after he was sent to try to subdue Lunceford.
amanda.covarrubias @latimes.com
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Dogwatch
Sniffer Dogs and Biotechnology
Proof that Dogwatch was right to perceive links between sniffer dogs and the dangerous potential of a bio-technology revolution in surveillance:
South Korea's new high tech product: cloned dogs
By Jon Herskovitz Reuters - Thursday, July 17 08:59 am
SEOUL (Reuters) - Two South Korean labs are offering pet owners the chance to clone dogs, but for those looking to bring back a beloved beagle, be ready to wait in line and have plenty of cash on hand.
(Advertisement)
The Seoul-based labs -- one affiliated to RNL Bio Co and the other to Sooam Biotech Research Foundation -- are separated by about 30 km (20 miles) and bill themselves as the only places in the world where you can clone a cocker spaniel or retrieve a retriever, with costs running at about $50,000 (25,000 pounds) to $100,000.
But the labs are turning out far more copies of working dogs and endangered breeds than pets.
Customers such as South Korea's customs service have cloned a champion sniffer dog, seeing the option as a cost-effective way to produce candidates for expensive training programs.
The customs service estimates the cost at 60 million won (30,128 pounds) per clone. It costs about twice that to breed and train a normal sniffer dog, but only about 30 percent are good enough to make the grade, it said.
"This all came about from the question of how we could secure dogs with superior qualities at a low price," commissioner of the Korea Customs Service Hur Yong-suk said.
Near South Korea's main international airport, trainers have been putting seven Labrador retrievers cloned from a top drug sniffing dog named Chase through their paces.
The seven clones, all named Toppy for "tomorrow's puppy", were produced in October and November last year by RNL Bio and seem to have the right stuff for the job, their trainer said.
TOP DOG IN CLONING BATTLE
Both labs are staffed with researchers who worked with Hwang Woo-suk, once hailed as a national hero in South Korea for his work in human embryonic stem cells but who later fell from his perch when his research results were found to be fraudulent.
Hwang, who left Seoul National University in disgrace, went on to form Sooam in 2006, while the RNL Bio lab is largely staffed by researchers who stayed behind after Hwang left the prestigious university.
RNL says Hwang's team members, and not Hwang himself, developed the technology that resulted in the world's first cloned dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy born in 2005 while Sooam says the technology belongs to Hwang.
"They can be our competitor or we can cooperate because our capacity is very small now. If we can make a partnership, we can make more dog clones for worldwide needs," said Ra Jeongchan, president and CEO of RNL Bio.
RNL, a biotech firm using dog cloning as a way to grow its international business, will soon produce its first cloned pet, copying a pit bull named Booger for a California grandmother who lost a few of her fingers and relied on the dog for help.
Ra said it costs as much to produce a single copy of a dog as it does to produce many clones.
Dogs are cloned using so-called somatic cell nuclear transfer, a technique for hollowing out the nucleus of a donor egg and injecting it with the donor's genetic material, which is typically skin tissue taken from the ear.
The canines are considered one of the more difficult mammals to clone because of their reproductive cycle that includes difficult-to-predict ovulations.
Sooam, which has brought Hwang back into the spotlight, made a splash when it said it produced the first clones of a pet dog, a mixed-breed called "Missy" that was the pet of the CEO of U.S. biotech firm BioArts International. Three clones were born in late 2007 and early 2008, it said.
U.S. biotech firm BioArts, which works with Sooam, is auctioning off five slots to people who want to clone their pets, with bids starting at $100,000.
RNL chief Ra said he expects to be able to clone about 100 dogs next year and for the price to drop as technology improves.
But Ra, the owner of a Maltese, has no plans to clone his own family pet. "It's too expensive," he said.
(Additional reporting by Kim Junghyun)
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
South Korea's new high tech product: cloned dogs
By Jon Herskovitz Reuters - Thursday, July 17 08:59 am
SEOUL (Reuters) - Two South Korean labs are offering pet owners the chance to clone dogs, but for those looking to bring back a beloved beagle, be ready to wait in line and have plenty of cash on hand.
(Advertisement)
The Seoul-based labs -- one affiliated to RNL Bio Co and the other to Sooam Biotech Research Foundation -- are separated by about 30 km (20 miles) and bill themselves as the only places in the world where you can clone a cocker spaniel or retrieve a retriever, with costs running at about $50,000 (25,000 pounds) to $100,000.
But the labs are turning out far more copies of working dogs and endangered breeds than pets.
Customers such as South Korea's customs service have cloned a champion sniffer dog, seeing the option as a cost-effective way to produce candidates for expensive training programs.
The customs service estimates the cost at 60 million won (30,128 pounds) per clone. It costs about twice that to breed and train a normal sniffer dog, but only about 30 percent are good enough to make the grade, it said.
"This all came about from the question of how we could secure dogs with superior qualities at a low price," commissioner of the Korea Customs Service Hur Yong-suk said.
Near South Korea's main international airport, trainers have been putting seven Labrador retrievers cloned from a top drug sniffing dog named Chase through their paces.
The seven clones, all named Toppy for "tomorrow's puppy", were produced in October and November last year by RNL Bio and seem to have the right stuff for the job, their trainer said.
TOP DOG IN CLONING BATTLE
Both labs are staffed with researchers who worked with Hwang Woo-suk, once hailed as a national hero in South Korea for his work in human embryonic stem cells but who later fell from his perch when his research results were found to be fraudulent.
Hwang, who left Seoul National University in disgrace, went on to form Sooam in 2006, while the RNL Bio lab is largely staffed by researchers who stayed behind after Hwang left the prestigious university.
RNL says Hwang's team members, and not Hwang himself, developed the technology that resulted in the world's first cloned dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy born in 2005 while Sooam says the technology belongs to Hwang.
"They can be our competitor or we can cooperate because our capacity is very small now. If we can make a partnership, we can make more dog clones for worldwide needs," said Ra Jeongchan, president and CEO of RNL Bio.
RNL, a biotech firm using dog cloning as a way to grow its international business, will soon produce its first cloned pet, copying a pit bull named Booger for a California grandmother who lost a few of her fingers and relied on the dog for help.
Ra said it costs as much to produce a single copy of a dog as it does to produce many clones.
Dogs are cloned using so-called somatic cell nuclear transfer, a technique for hollowing out the nucleus of a donor egg and injecting it with the donor's genetic material, which is typically skin tissue taken from the ear.
The canines are considered one of the more difficult mammals to clone because of their reproductive cycle that includes difficult-to-predict ovulations.
Sooam, which has brought Hwang back into the spotlight, made a splash when it said it produced the first clones of a pet dog, a mixed-breed called "Missy" that was the pet of the CEO of U.S. biotech firm BioArts International. Three clones were born in late 2007 and early 2008, it said.
U.S. biotech firm BioArts, which works with Sooam, is auctioning off five slots to people who want to clone their pets, with bids starting at $100,000.
RNL chief Ra said he expects to be able to clone about 100 dogs next year and for the price to drop as technology improves.
But Ra, the owner of a Maltese, has no plans to clone his own family pet. "It's too expensive," he said.
(Additional reporting by Kim Junghyun)
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
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Dogwatch
Tuesday Television
there's a ITV1 program about police dogs called: Send in the Dogs on Tuesday at 8pm
Posted by
Dogwatch
A reader's praise for Headspace
"I love some of the quotes from the police 'we have intelligence that huge numbers of people who take drugs use the transport system' that's hilarious. I assumed this comment was directed at the London transport system which huge numbers of people use irrespective of drug habits and surely it only serves to suggest a significant number of society use drugs in some form or another? "
Thank you! Intelligence-led policing isn't as sophisticated as it sounds! Sometimes it's an excuse to widen police powers over the general public by hiding behind meaningless stats!
Thank you! Intelligence-led policing isn't as sophisticated as it sounds! Sometimes it's an excuse to widen police powers over the general public by hiding behind meaningless stats!
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Dogwatch
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