Have you got a police record ? you may have.

[sheerwater]

With the recent Soham murders police records are being checked more and more by employers etc. I however fell foul of this when applying for a special licence. I was interviewed by a policeman in my own home regarding the licence and it came up that I had a record which in probability could stop the licence being granted. Mystified I followed it up to find that the police hold quite a few records on the individual. These can be accessed by quite a number of individuals/authorities and if for example you make a complaint /report a crime etc. these records can be accessed to see if you are a reliable person etc. In my case I found out that I had a police record for an offence. This record could have stopped me following my profession and I have good reason to believe that it did have adverse effects. In my case there was no arrest, formal warning, no threat of impending procecution, no follow up regarding the whole matter and no charges placed. The matter ended up on computer as a solved crime and details even stated that I had admitted the offence. (PS I did not do anything wrong just for the record) I followed this up fully as you are able to do this under the data protection act. After 3 months of wrangling, argueing, investigation , being shunted from police station to police station because each station was investigating the other etc. etc. I eventually managed to get the record changed. This was done in a very casual manner as if things did not matter and I was making a fuss. It comes as no surprise however that just one week after the change I was offered work again in my profession(after a dirth of work which lasted exactly the same period of time as my ''police record'') I also wonder if during the same period if I had been charged with an offence which I had committed whether my ''police record'' would have been brought up and used against me. Frightening really. Big brother is not just a TV show. Cheers Nigel