Darren Nixon added to the database

Jon Bright (London, OK): Noticed this in the Metro yesterday - Darren Nixon, a 28 year old mechanic from Stoke-on-Trent, was arrested mistakenly by a police firearms unit, who believed he was carrying a gun (it turned out to be a black iPod). The police had been phoned by a commuter, and can hardly be blamed for sending a firearms unit if someone dials 999 and says there's a gun involved. But he has, of course, been given the regulation DNA swab and fingerprinting - details of which are immediately added to our burgeoning DNA database - and furthermore, if the Metro is correct, his record will always reflect that he was arrested on suspicion of a firearms offence, all of which makes for uneasy reading for anyone worried about the advance of the 'database state' in this country.