I fully support the comments made by Deputy Chief Constable Ian Readhead that reflect on our choices for society. Many highly informed and responsible people are constrained by their office or otherwise from raising such issues in public. Having recently stepped down from the Chair of Victim Support Hampshire and Isle of Wight I am at least able to say that new laws seriously threaten the willingness of victims and witnesses to come forward when, in the course of helping the police eliminate DNA and fingerprints from a crime scene to focus on the physical evidence left by the offender, they supply their own DNA and fingerprints. However innocent, such public spirited people will have their information retained for ever.

As a professional psychologist I find the argument that innocent people have nothing to worry about is profoundly naïve. It is time to ground our arguments in empirical evidence and a good start would be to read Philip Zimbardo's new book "The Lucifer Effect - understanding how good people turn evil."

Kevin Kingsland CPsychol, CSci, AFBPsS