Jean Charles de Menezes

When I was 16 in 1963, I spent the summer looking for tiny ferrous metal inclusions in copper wire. I was very successful at it and developed a technology that could have been used to make copper wire much better.

Anyway, the technology today would be able to detect individuals carrying quite small amounts of metal. You might have two people with small handbag-sized back-packs, who walked either side of the suspect and scanned them. The relative movement would trigger a detector, if the suspect had say 200 grams of metal, such as a knife in a pocket. But the suspect would be unaware his knife had been found.

Other technologies would detect if someone was carrying explosives. I helped build detectors for all sorts of chemicals in the 1970s when I worked for ICI. Many were portable and crude by today's standards of miniaturised electronics and power packs.

So why if this type of technology is available to industry, is it not available to the Police? Why too aren't Police officers wired up with cameras so that the truth can be shown as quickly as possible?

The unfortunate Jean Charles should have been searched well before he reached the Tube station.

Perhaps, it's because Chief Constables always want the best, but as they live in a competitive world, they don't really want other forces to share their advances.