The Police in England and Wales have significant powers – to take our DNA and fingerprints if we’re arrested and store the profiles on a vast database; to run checks on car number plates; to monitor and record what we do in certain public places and situations. One person is entrusted to oversee the way the powers are used – the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner.

The post is a new one – an amalgamation of two roles – and is currently held by Professor Fraser Sampson, who has spent 40 years working in criminal justice, including 19 as a police officer. After leaving school he joined the West Yorkshire force before moving to British Transport Police. He qualified as a lawyer, worked for police and crime commissioners in two police force areas becoming national chair of the Association of Police and Crime Chief Executives, and is an Honorary Professor at Sheffield Hallam University.

In our latest edition of ’Talking Crime’, PolicingTV’s Chief Presenter, Danny Shaw, spoke to Professor Sampson about the challenges of facial recognition technology, the latest advances in DNA testing – and what police need to do to avoid mistakes when they take samples.