Since 1995, the genetic information from DNA samples taken by police across the UK has been added to a database, which has grown to contain the profiles of 5.7 million people (though some profiles are duplicates). The database also holds 450,000 DNA profiles from crime scenes.
Over the past two years the operation of the database, and the techniques underpinning it, have altered dramatically in a way that is only just beginning to be understood.
In 2013, as part of the Protection of Freedoms Act, the database was pruned in order to remove the details of innocent people – 1.7 million profiles of children and of adults who hadn’t been convicted of any crime were deleted.
That Act was the result of a battle by civil liberty campaigners and others after the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2008 that the then UK Government’s “blanket and indiscriminate” policy of storing DNA profiles indefinitely failed to strike “a fair balance” between an individual’s right to privacy and the state’s interest in tackling crime.
Under the Act, a complicated system of retention rules was introduced to differentiate between adults and those under 18; between people who have been cautioned or convicted and those who haven’t; and between low-level offences and crimes such as burglary, rape, murder and terrorism.
The new arrangements are so convoluted that even the man responsible for overseeing them, Alastair MacGregor, the Biometrics Commissioner, has cast doubt as to whether they can work effectively and fairly.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full original post: Can we still rely on DNA sampling to crack crime?
