http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/05/dna_database_oversold/
John Lettice
Luckless inner city inhabitants among the Reg readership will possibly have the impression that if they're burgled or their car window gets smashed, they're a lot likelier to get offers of counselling than an actual crime investigation; historically, it frequently hasn't been cost effective for the police to try to find solvable crimes in among the huge pile of unsolvable low ticket ones, hence the low clear-up rates for them. But, as the Home Office figures show, DNA matching produces dramatic boosts in clear-up rates, so it now makes sense for police to get round to the scene of the crime and collect the samples, right?
