A good thing
Why do stories like this make me feel uneasy? After all it is a good thing to solve crimes, and serious crimes at that. but there is an irrational old luddite in me that worries about the inexorable drift to everyone's DNA being recorded - or would it lead to a better country with less crime?
BBC NEWS | UK | Old crimes solved after DNA blitz
Police have cracked 64 unsolved crimes following the DNA testing of prisoners and offenders with mental disorders.
A further 78 unsolved crimes are being revisited after an exercise to take samples from 3,772 prisoners and offenders not on a national database.
DNA matches have helped police take action over a 1997 murder in London and a 1994 rape in South Yorkshire.
The success of the exercise, launched in February, was announced on Monday by Home Office minister Hazel Blears.
An example - I would buy a DNA sniffer that recorded the DNA of any goblin that broke into my house - and I would be very pleased to use the results to hunt them down, but I'm not sure I want my DNA on file at the local nick...