UK police arrest people for their DNA: report
Source: Agencies |
November 25, 2009, Wednesday
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BRITAIN has built the world's biggest DNA database without proper political debate and police routinely arrest people just to get their DNA profiles onto the system, the genetics watchdog said in a report released yesterday.
The Human Genetics Commission, which advises the government on the social, legal and ethical aspects of genetics, called for a review of the database and said new laws must be passed to govern its use.
Set up in 1995, the database contains the DNA profiles of 5 million citizens, eight percent of the population, making it the world's biggest in proportion to population size.
More than three-quarters of black men aged from 18 to 35 are on the system.
"Parliament has never formally debated the establishment of the National DNA Database and safeguards around it," commission chairman Professor Jonathan Montgomery said. "It has developed through amendments to laws designed to regulate the taking of fingerprints and physical evidence before DNA profiling was developed."
The report quoted an unidentified retired senior police officer as saying that "it is now the norm to arrest offenders for everything" in order to obtain a DNA sample.
A Home Office spokesman said the database was a "vital crime-fighting tool" that had linked more than 410,000 crime scenes with a DNA match between 1998 and March 2009.
Opposition politicians and human rights groups said the report provided further evidence that Britain is a "surveillance society."
The Human Genetics Commission, which advises the government on the social, legal and ethical aspects of genetics, called for a review of the database and said new laws must be passed to govern its use.
Set up in 1995, the database contains the DNA profiles of 5 million citizens, eight percent of the population, making it the world's biggest in proportion to population size.
More than three-quarters of black men aged from 18 to 35 are on the system.
"Parliament has never formally debated the establishment of the National DNA Database and safeguards around it," commission chairman Professor Jonathan Montgomery said. "It has developed through amendments to laws designed to regulate the taking of fingerprints and physical evidence before DNA profiling was developed."
The report quoted an unidentified retired senior police officer as saying that "it is now the norm to arrest offenders for everything" in order to obtain a DNA sample.
A Home Office spokesman said the database was a "vital crime-fighting tool" that had linked more than 410,000 crime scenes with a DNA match between 1998 and March 2009.
Opposition politicians and human rights groups said the report provided further evidence that Britain is a "surveillance society."
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