IN a chilling report, one of Britain's most senior police officers said we weren't doing enough to tackle crime - before it happens.

Gary Pugh, Scotland Yard's director of forensic sciences and a spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, appears to side with the experts who believe it is possible to detect future offending traits in children as young as five.

He believes children should be eligible for the UK's DNA database - the biggest in Europe with 4.5 million profiles already on file - if they display behaviour that may indicate they could become criminals in later life.

What he means, presumably, is that parents, teachers, guardians, social workers, youth leaders and any other adults in charge of children will be able to report certain behaviour traits which could then by interpreted by criminologists as suggesting the kids could turn out to be future law-breakers.

I know there will be those who will agree with Mr Pugh - who at least has the grace to recognise the controversial issues regarding consent, stigmatisation and the qualifications of those being relied upon to spot such behaviour - but, at best, this sounds sinister.

For those who are already convinced we are heading for some kind of Orwellian dystopia, here's yet more evidence of an advancing police state.

In my own experience, I know of a case in which teachers dismissed an extremely bright, but introverted lad as being manipulative, exploitative and disruptive when all he did was keep himself to himself.

In a clear case of victimisation, he was accused of all kinds of Machiavellian outrages that - if the likes of Pugh have their way - I suspect would have seen him profiled as a future potential criminal.

He wasn't, and to my certain knowledge, isn't a criminal, but how different could his life have been if he and his family had been visited by the police every time an offence was committed that a criminologist felt could have been down to him - or someone of his "type"?

It's already agreed that the penal system is dysfunctional; that prisons are effectively universities of crime.

If children are to be identified as the criminals of the future before they've even broken the law, are we not sentencing them to a life of crime, writing them off?

Do we need that much control over society that we are willing to almost pre-ordain its miscreants?

Sadly, this isn't some kind of Ballardesque, paranoid science fiction fantasy.

The Institute for Public Policy Research, a Labour-linked think tank, has produced a report entitled Make Me A Criminal, suggesting that children aged five to 12 be targeted with preventive cognitive behavioural therapy, programmes for parents and intensive support.

Not even 1984's Big Brother was interested in stamping out those who might commit crime before they'd even thought about it.