Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 07:46:32 -0500 To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com> From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com> Subject: UK: Santa Ain't The Only One Keepin Track of Who's Naughty & Nice Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by aztec.asu.edu id GAA14741From: "News Viewz" <NewsViewz@yahoo.com> To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com> News Viewz Group" <newsviewz@yahoogroups.com> Subject: Naughty Children to be Registered as Potential Criminals Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2001 19:42:54 -0500 Organization: News Viewz
<http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/11/25/ncri me25.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/11/25/ixhomef.html>
Monday 26 November 2001
Naughty Children to be Registered as Potential Criminals
By David Bamber
THE police are to set up a secret database of children as young as three who they fear might grow up to become criminals.
Youngsters who behave badly or commit trivial misdemeanours will be put on the confidential register so that they can be monitored and supervised throughout childhood.
The controversial initiative is to be pioneered in 11 London boroughs from March and then expanded nationally. Any child who is thought to be at risk of committing a crime by the police, schools or social services, will be put on the database.
Children involved in cheekiness, minor vandalism and causing nuisances, will be targeted under the scheme.
Their progress will then be monitored at school and on the streets by special squads of police officers and social workers, even though the children have not committed a crime and will not have been warned that they are being watched.
Ian Blair, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said that the register was needed because of a rise in youngsters turning to violent crime.
The plan grew out of the Damilola Taylor murder investigation on a grim council estate in south London last year. There detectives came across dozens of wild and unruly children who - outside the scope of the present law - were in danger of becoming criminals.
Mr Blair said: "We have identified 11 London boroughs where youth crime is growing most significantly.
"With partners in those boroughs, we intend to create an intelligence nexus which will hold sensitive information about large numbers of children, many of whom have not yet and probably will not drift into criminal activity."
He admitted: "This is pretty revolutionary stuff. There will be lots of worries but as long as it is understood that the purpose of holding this information is to ensure that we should collectively intervene to prevent children from becoming criminal I think that it will be accepted."
He said that schools and social services already had information about young children in danger of becoming criminals but at the moment they did not share this with the police.
He said that the scheme had been inspired by the murder of Damilola, 10, in Southwark. Several youngsters have now been charged with his murder.
Mr Blair said: "With no specific or necessary connection to the individuals charged, the inquiry team found that in some parts of Southwark there was a feeding chain leading to rampant criminality, a mixture of abuse, victimisation and criminality.
"Children who had, Fagin-like, been coerced and taught to steal, children who rose to prominence within their peer group by dint of theft and violence.
"It is not an exaggeration to note that, for some of these children, street gangs provided a safer and more caring environment than their homes or classrooms." Mr Blair, who has unveiled his plans to the Government's Youth Justice Board, said the inquiry team found evidence of children who had been abused at home and who were subject to bullying and muggings at school and close to home.
He said it had always been thought improper to share information but it was now essential because this could sometimes prevent crimes being committed against children.
He added: "We are aware of examples from within London where caring professionals have been told in confidence by children that they have been victims of quite serious crimes."
The proposal is being examined by Elizabeth France, the Information Commissioner, but the police are confident that it will not breach existing laws. Last night, Liberty, the organisation that campaigns for civil liberties, expressed concern about the plan.
Roger Bingham, the Liberty spokesman, said: "We have a number of concerns about the proposals. For a start, what kind of behaviour will result in being put on this register?
"Who will have access to it, and who will decide whether children go on it or come off it? The aims of the idea might be to reduce crime but there are serious libertarian worries."
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2001. Terms & Conditions of reading.
### Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 14:16:16 +0200 (EET) From: Jei <jei@cc.hut.fi> To: politech@politechbot.com, Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com> Subject: UK Police Starts Profiling of Children
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,48637,00.html
Keeping a Who's-Naughty List By [6]Julia Scheeres 2:00 a.m. Nov. 27, 2001 PST
London police are planning to register children who exhibit criminal potential in an effort to prevent them from developing into full-fledged lawbreakers.
Kids who tag buildings with graffiti, skip school, or even talk back to adults run the risk of being entered into a database program that will be used to monitor their behavior as they grow up, according to police sources.
Law enforcement officials say the measure is needed to combat rampant juvenile crime, but critics condemn it as an extreme form of police profiling.
The plan was unveiled earlier this month in a speech by Ian Blair, London's deputy police commissioner, to the [25]Youth Justice Board, the government agency that supervises Great Britain's juvenile justice system.
Teachers, social workers, health care professionals, law enforcement agents and other authorities who have contact with troublemakers will contribute information to the database program, which will be rolled out in 11 London boroughs before being implemented nationally, according to a copy of the speech. Special squads formed by police and community workers will supervise the actions and behavior of children included in the registry.
"With partners in those boroughs, we intend to create an intelligence nexus, which will hold sensitive information about large numbers of children, many of whom have not yet and probably will not actually drift into active criminality. This is pretty revolutionary stuff," Blair said.
The deputy police commissioner said the registry was needed to combat a jump in juvenile delinquency. While most crime indicators have dropped in Great Britain, street crimes committed by children have skyrocketed, according to government data. Between 50 and 75 percent of the muggings that occurred on London's streets in the first nine months of this year were perpetrated by minors, studies show.
Local authorities will use the database to identify underlying causes of children's bad behavior and recommend therapy or substance abuse treatment programs.
"In this process, we have every intention of using intensive surveillance and supervision programs," Blair said.
Asked for a comment on the program, a spokeswoman from the Youth Justice Board e-mailed the following statement to Wired News:
"The Youth Justice Board is supportive of the idea of increasing information sharing in respect of young people at risk of becoming involved in criminality, and we will be joining with the Met Police to look at ways this can be achieved."
A Metropolitan Police spokesman refused to discuss further details of the plan, saying it was still in an exploratory stage.
Privacy concerns aren't expected to derail the effort. In his speech, Blair said that Section 115 of the country's [26]Crime and Disorder Act, which allows for disclosure of private information to investigate crimes, may override the [27]Data Protection Act, which regulates information-sharing among government agencies.
But the director of [28]Privacy International, Simon Davies, said the registries were tantamount to police "profiling gone mad."
"I shudder to think of the action that could be taken by authorities with such a database," Davies said. "All I can see coming out of this is greater criminalization of children and heightened discrimination against certain racial groups."
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