UK/EU: Law enforcement and DNA technology (feature)
01 September 2000
"It is likely that within a generation, the DNA of most of the UK population will have been archived in a national database.
The current mania for DNA testing goes right to the heart of the privacy issue. Traditionally, invasion of privacy has been regarded as effective social management. Police have always argued that privacy and anonymity are bad news for law enforcement. Authority has always sought to create perfect identification of citizens. And DNA is the perfect identifier." (Simon Davies, Director, Privacy International)
This year has seen a number of significant developments in the use of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) profiling techniques in law enforcement. The government has announced an increase in funding to enable the UK DNA database to be more rapidly expanded - even though it already holds profiles taken from just under a million "criminals" and is rising at the rate of 6,000 per week. The Home Office has confirmed that at least 50,000 people's DNA profiles are held illegally, but are yet to state what is being done about it. An Appeal Court has recently affirmed that prosecutions arising from illegally retained profiles are unlawful and the Police Federation is backing three detectives effectively demoted to desk-jobs for failing to provide a voluntary sample. Under a draft EU proposal, member states are to begin exchanging DNA profiles as a prelude to creating European database.
UK database to be expanded: a sense of disproportion?
With the DNA of 940,000 people on file the UK has the most "profiled" population in the world. At the end of September, Jack Straw announced an extra £109 million to expand the database (this comes after the extra £34 million announced in September 1999).
Some people who have had their DNA forcibly taken in connection with minor offences are angry at the level of intrusion that the law allows (Statewatch has been contacted by a number of such people). As the law stands, any person suspected, charged or convicted of any criminal act, however minor - traffic offences, shoplifting, or public order transgressions such as breach of the peace for example can be "profiled". The "profile" must be removed if the arrested person is not charged with an offence or if the person is acquitted. John Wadham, Director of Liberty, commented:
"We have always accepted that DNA testing is a powerful tool against offences where a suspect might have left a sample such as sexual offences, burglary or violent offences. But the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1994 allows police officers forcibly to hold a suspect down, forcibly to open their mouth and to take a swab - even where the sample would be of no use to the investigation..."
A Dutch arms trade protester arrested for criminal damage to a London pavement and forcibly "profiled" is a case in point (see Statewatch vol 10 no 1).
In September, government advisers from the Commission on Human Genetics also expressed concern over the "level of offence" and said it intended to consult the public over what controls might be necessary.
It is also worth noting that levels of DNA profiling vary greatly among UK police forces. For the last four years, Edinburgh police (Lothian and Borders force, Scotland) have systematically taken DNA from everyone they have arrested or detained. Other forces currently use their "discretion" but the extra funding may see the Edinburgh policy become normal practice.
Profiles held illegally, use unlawful but possible
In the UK, police are only allowed to keep DNA profiles on the national database from people who are convicted of the offence for which the sample was taken. All other samples/profiles must be destroyed. However, in July, a Home Office Inspectorate of Constabulary report, "Under the Microscope", estimated that from 752,718 DNA profiles held at the time of their study those of 50,000 individuals which should of been destroyed have been retained. This fi