CLA’s CEO Bill Rowlings was quoted in Brisbane’s Sunday Mail in January 2010 decrying the fact that Qld Police are taking DNA swabs from 10 to 16-year-olds and filing them away on a criminal database. A reader has taken him to task; read her comment and here’s his response.
Message: Bill Rowlings’ comment on DNA tagging for kids suggests to me that he’s not suitable for a position of authority in Australia. He said that police could be taking DNA from kids for stealing a Mars Bar. Its insulting to think that our police are that petty and stupid, or that the magistrates that ok’d the DNA sampling are in a vicious want of common sense. Given what I read 12 year olds are doing these days, I’m glad that if these kids cannot be rehabilitated, then at least they have a significantly greater chance of being caught as adults for the crimes they might commit. And I doubt they will be stealing Mars Bars as adults.
Please think twice before you elect him to the board. From that one silly outlandish comment I don’t think he’d be much of an asset if that’s the kind of Civil Liberties he is going to advocate. Sincerely, Sarah.
RESPONSE:
Thank you for your comment. We like feedback, even when it is critical of CLA.
Perhaps you are unaware of Freddo Frog case in WA in November 2009?
A 12-year-old boy is still under charge as of Jan 2010 for ‘receiving’ a stolen Freddo Frog, worth about 70 cents. The WA case was the basis for the CLA comments on the situation in Qld, where police are taking the DNA of juveniles as young as 10 under magistrates’ orders.
From our national perspective, police in Qld are about the same as police in WA…unless you can point to some major difference between the police forces in different states? As the Freddo Frog case proves, police will sometimes take excessive action against juveniles. Taking DNA samples from 10-year-old children for petty, childish offences is excessive, in CLA’s opinion.
The potential danger in both states, and the rest of Australia, is that mandatory sentencing for juveniles will be introduced, eventually taking away any discretion magistrates now have to put a halt to taking DNA from children. (As the Sunday Mail article points out, even with discretion some magistrates are obviously approving the taking of DNA samples from 10-year-old children in Queensland).
Bill Rowlings