Police concede and apologise to unlawfully arrested photographer, but some issues remain unsolved

Andrew Handley, a photographer unlawfully arrested for taking photographs at the scene of a road traffic accident, has received £5,000 in compensation. Thames Valley Police took fingerprints and DNA from Handley when he was arrested, but have now destroyed this data.

It’s great that Handley had his arrest and its consequences reversed, not to mention a healthy lump of compensation, but there are a couple of serious issues still to be addressed.

Firstly, journalists are routinely harassed by the police for taking pictures or filming in the street. Several recent examples highlight the misunderstanding of the law in some cases, but downright pedantry, zealotry, and obstruction in others. Why are the police continually targeting people legitimately using cameras? Aren’t they fully briefed on the rights of a camera-user?

Secondly, why did the police take Handley’s DNA and fingerprints? What crime had the officer thought he’d committed which warranted such an invasion of private, personal information? The police can’t go on harvesting our DNA to create a database via the back door. They’ve been pulled up on this before, and I’m sure it won’t be the last time.

It’s all very worrying.