We've got your dabs, mate.

The suggestion that all fingerprints collected for ID card purposes will be checked against prints held on file in respect of unsolved crimes has met with angry opposition on the grounds that it would be an invasion of privacy and a breach of human rights. I have always found the idea of those who have broken the law having rights of any kind in relation to their crime a very strange concept, but what does bother me is the unspoken assumption that fingerprint evidence is reliable. There are plenty of cases - both in this country and abroad - where expert evidence that a print found somewhere was that of a certain person has been demonstrated to be wrong. So the danger is that this will result in more people being accused - and possibly convicted - of crimes they haven't committed. Before going down this line, I think we need to look seriously at the current "16-point" standard for print identification.