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EU: Calls to expand DNA database to be fuelled by advances intechnology?

01 September 1998

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A three month pilot scheme to add the DNA profiles of all drug offenders to the National DNA Database begins in the West Midlands in October. In July, at the "Police Expo 98", the Forensic Science Service (FSS, which has responsibility for the national database) recommended mandatory sampling for drug offenders. The national database began operating in April 1995 and holds over 290,000 profiles from suspects charged, reported, cautioned or convicted of a recordable offence; it also holds 33,000 profiles from crime scenes.

Several months ago the President of the Police Superintendents Association called for a database containing the profiles of the entire population, while at their annual conference in September the FSS announced "breakthroughs" in DNA technology and genetic profiling. Proposals for the exchange of DNA data between EU Member States are well under way (see Statewatch European Monitor, vol 1 no 1).

The FSS has increasingly touted itself as a "world renowned research and development facility" and the FBI has announced plans to replicate the system architecture of the British DNA database in the new US archive.

FSS, press releases 12.2.98, 14.7.98; Independent, 9.9.98; Guardian, 16.9.98; Times, 13.10.98.

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