By Andy McCue, 20 February 2006 13:50
NEWS
An "out of control stealth database" storing thousands of innocent people's DNA is being created because of a lack of guidelines and controls over how police collect DNA, according to a campaign group led by Conservative MP Grant Shapps.
More than 100,000 innocent adults have their DNA permanently stored on the national police database. Figures obtained by Shapps show more than 24,000 children aged between 10 and 18 have had their DNA added despite never being cautioned or charged for any offence.
Police have been able to take and keep DNA records and fingerprints of anyone arrested for a recordable offence, even if they are later released without caution or charge, since April 2004. The DNA is stored for life and can only be removed at the chief constable's discretion.
The total number of records on the UK's national DNA database passed the three million mark this year - just over five per cent of the UK population - with the number of crimes solved using the profiles also continuing to rise.
But the "postcode lottery" of wide regional variation in the collection of children's DNA by police forces shows a lack of national consistency in adding samples to the database, according to Shapps.
The figures obtained by Shapps show that Northamptonshire police are adding innocent kids' DNA profiles at the fastest rate - 182 per 100,000 children each month - closely followed by Durham, West Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
At the opposite end of the scale Thames Valley police are only adding three kids' DNA profiles per 100,000 each month with West Mercia and Humberside the lowest at just one per month. The full regional breakdown can be found here.
Shapps is backing the 'Children off the National DNA Database' (Cond) campaign, to have innocent children's DNA removed from the national police database, saying that the practice degrades the public's confidence in the system because of a lack of "checks and safeguards".
He told silicon.com: "The government is extremely complacent and I think their objective is to create a DNA database by stealth."
But the Home Office said that 7,591 DNA samples of children and adults not charged or cautioned and which would otherwise have been destroyed have been later matched to samples from crime scenes since 2001.
Shapps acknowledged the benefits of the DNA database in helping the police solve crimes but said if the government wants to create a national database containing the DNA of innocent people as well as those charged and convicted of crimes then it requires new legislation.
He said: "The current anomaly of adding innocent children to the database and then refusing to remove them once their innocence has been established, degrades the public's confidence in the system."
The government issued new guidelines for chief police officers on the removal of DNA records from the database last week but Liberal Democrat home affairs spokeswoman Lynne Featherstone MP said this does not go far enough.
She said in a statement: "The government needs to come clean on this issue. We need to know if the government is creating a database of everyone in the country by stealth or if the database will only be used to store the profiles of criminals."
Comments
There are 12 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Well done silicon.com for continuing to raise this, and related, issues.
When are the populace going to wake up to the fact that they are truly sleepwalking into an authoritarian surveillance centric state?
Are people so lacking in imagination that then cannot see how these things can (and will!) be abused? Are they SO naive as to assume ALL future governments will be benign? How can anyone believe that given Blair's new law about "glorifying terrorism" - that could so easily be used to suppress almost any discussion of dissent that requires civil disobedience - and that is the way many worthwhile social changes have come about (the Suffragettes for example!)
2. Charles Smith
It is time for the Information Commissioner to show his/her teeth. Ok keep the DNA and fingerprint information for people convicted of criminal offences, but after that there is clearly no justification for retaining the data other that the official desire to create a police state.
Any senior official sanctioning such unjustified retentions should themselves be sent to jail.
3. Phil shipperlee
This is the usual weak PC reaction that is ruining many aspects of the great British way of life. Everyone should have their DNA on record - this is only an issue for the wrong doers and it will protect the rest of us who are law abiding honest citizens. Mr MP please do something sensible with the position that we have given you.
4. Simon Newsom
This is another example of 'big brother' control by central government. Innocent and uncharged people's data should be removed IMMEDIATELY. We must all try to get our MPs to lobby government and vote accordingly.
5. anonymous
What is the problem with people ? Do you have to be guilty of something to be on the Police computer? Surely it is better to be there and be eliminated from guilt. Rather than not be there and eventually be caught and be proven guilty of something. People these days are so paranoid about being caught out, it just shows that people are "at it" all the time and are frightened of being caught.
6. anonymous
If this is so harmless why do we not see or hear about all of the police and government employees being the first in line to supply their DNA for the records and that includes the MP's or is it just the rest of us that must submit to this database by stealth, I am sure most of the people who's DNA is gathered and who are not guilty of any crime, if asked would leave it on record, it is the theft of these samples that people object to.
7. Karen Challinor
I don't have to be eliminated from guilt as I have committed no crime.
However the chap down the road from me who has committed a crime and whose address is only a few digits different gets identified via DNA, my home gets raided and I am arrested, my dna is taken and checked against the police database and lo it's in there thus confirming the initial error, I get charged and locked up because of an address error.
The fact that my DNA is different to the initial sample is never brought into question.
However if my DNA were not in the database I would be released as the mistake would be discovered.
So a clerical error can put someone in prison and because it's backed up by DNA which should not have been there in the first place, it's regarded as a safe conviction and an innocent person suffers.
So please by all means have your DNA recorded for elimination purposes, but you aren't having mine without a few guarantees which I don't believe you are capable of backing up.
Far fetched I hear you say, prove it can't happen I say.
MP's spend hours dealing with constituents who have critical pieces of information about them recorded in error and they have no way to correct the error.
8. anonymous
If this is so harmless why do we not see or hear about all of the police and government employees being the first in line to supply their DNA for the records and that includes the MP's or is it just the rest of us that must submit to this database by stealth, I am sure most of the people who's DNA is gathered and who are not guilty of any crime, if asked would leave it on record, it is the theft of these samples that people object to.
9. Mike Richards
Does this come under the remit of the Data Protection Act? Holding DNA data on the off-chance that it could be used later seems to fall foul of some of the eight principles of good practice; namely that infomation should be: 'processed for limited purposes', 'adequate relevant and not excessive' and, 'not kept longer than necessary.'
10. anonymous
No one seems to have considered that information can, often, be attributed wrongly to an innocent person. A "clerical error" would be difficult to erase.
I believe that popular entertainment (cop operas) still persists in the myth that fingerprints will be destroyed when an innocent person is released from police custody.
11. Dave Reynolds
The DNA database is a investigative tool. It is used to investigate crime, it is not a record of anything other than matching DNA to individuals.
The database has proved extremely useful in solving some very serious crimes.
I fail to understand how the presence of my record causes any issues, or could be used against me.
12. Winston Smith
Based on their comments above, I assume that Phil Shipperlee and the Retired Anonymous of Great Brtain have already gone into their local Police Station to voluntarily supply DNA samples.