Monday, November 29, 2004

Senior judge calls for DNA database

UK: A senior appeal court judge noted as an upholder of civil liberties called for a national DNA database recording everyone living in or entering the country.

The present police database can keep samples from everyone who has been arrested, whether or not a charge or conviction follows.

"This has the unfortunate effect of putting the innocent on a par with the guilty," Sir Stephen Sedley said in a lecture at Leicester University.

"It draws a not very logical line between innocent people who have and have not passed through the hands of the police.

The law lords were told in a recent case that of more than 130,000 retained DNA profiles of unconvicted people, about 6,000 had been subsequently linked to samples found at scenes of crimes.

They included 86 murders or attempted murders and 94 rapes. The burglary clear-up rate almost quadrupled when DNA was found at the crime scene, Sir Stephen added.

Use of the DNA data would have to be restricted, as now, to the purposes of preventing, detecting, investigating and prosecuting crime, he said.

But there was a parallel case, he added, for a separate national DNA register, insulated from the policing function, and maintained for benign purposes, such as identifying disaster victims, tracing lost or abducted children, and perhaps one day for making medical prognoses.

The human rights group Liberty said: "We can't see any case for a national DNA database. Serious crime in Britain is the preserve of about 100,000 people."

By Clare Dyer and Just Us posted 29 November 04

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