That Tossed Cigarette Just May Become a DNA Sample

Rather than deal with the problem of radical Islamist that infest their country, Britain is more worried about catching litterbugs:

Police are seeking powers to take DNA samples from suspects on the streets and for non-imprisonable offences such as speeding and dropping litter.

The demand for a huge expansion of powers to take DNA comes as a government watchdog announced the first public inquiry into the national DNA database.

There is growing concern among MPs and civil liberties groups about the number of children under 10 and young black men on the database — the biggest in the world. But a number of police forces in England and Wales are backing proposals that would add millions more samples to it.

The Association of Chief Police Officers gave a warning, however, that allowing police to take samples for non-recordable offences — crimes for which offenders cannot be imprisoned — might be perceived as indicative of “the increasing criminalisation of the generally law-abiding public”.

If you toss out a cigarette and it starts a damaging brush fire and the police are able to get a DNA sample from it to prosecute the wrongdoer, I'm all for that. But collecting DNA samples where there doesn't appear to be a serious crime sounds like an invasion of privacy that probably wouldn't be tolerated in the U.S.