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The National DNA Database
What is The National DNA Database?
http://www.forensic.gov.uk/forensic_t/inside/about/general.htm#11
“The National DNA Database® (NDNAD) is an intelligence database.
“It was set up in 1995, following amendments to the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984 by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
“This allowed buccal (mouth) scrapes, criminal justice samples, or rooted hairs, to be obtained for DNA analysis in broadly the same circumstances as fingerprints.
“The information derived from these can be searched against records held by or on behalf of the police.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/05/ndna105.xml
“The national DNA database… is a "library" of samples of human material taken from around three million people suspected of, or charged with, crimes.
“Each sample - including mouth swabs, hairs, scrapings of skin or blood - has been analysed to produce a unique DNA, or genetic, "fingerprint", which is recorded in digital form on a computer.
“Physical samples, which are taken by doctors at the request of police, are preserved by the Forensic Science Service (FSS), a government-owned agency that is "custodian" of the database (NDNAD) and is based in Birmingham.
“Each sample/profile - gathered under laws that allow samples to be taken from children as young as 10 - is accompanied by details, such as age, address or criminal record, supplied by police to identify the individual. “
Who is on the National DNA Database?
According to recent articles in the Daily Telegraph (which has covered the issue in great detail), more than three million Britons have their DNA stored on the database.
On 9th January 2006, Philip Johnson revealed that “the DNA from 750,000 juveniles has been added to the national police database over the past 10 years, the Government has revealed.
Nearly a third of the samples has been included over the past two years since police were given power to take DNA from under-18s for the first time without the permission of their parents or guardians.
“Parliamentary written answers show that the genetic profiles of 230,000 juveniles were added to the database in 2004 and 2005, compared with 3,000 10 years ago.”
“One of the key drivers in its expansion is the ability of the police to retain, rather than destroy, the DNA of people who are arrested but never charged with an offence, or even cautioned. This includes juveniles.
“Figures published last week show that the database contained the profiles of 140,000 people whose DNA was taken on arrest but who were subsequently not charged.
“More than 40 per cent of arrests do not result in charges but they are all logged on the computer, albeit with the tag "No Further Action". On 5th January 2006, Philip Johnson commented on the database’s threat to freedom. He pointed out that
“New Home Office figures estimate that by 2008, the samples of some 4.2 million people - seven per cent of the population - will be contained on a central criminal database, which is growing by about half a million a year.
“Proportionately it is easily the largest DNA database in the world and is 50 times the size of the French equivalent. The next largest is in Austria, where less than one per cent of the population is included. The coverage in Germany and America, is half of that.” He added that “no other country gives its police greater freedom to obtain, use and store genetic information and most remove the profiles if the person is acquitted or not charged.”
Police want a universal DNA database
On 9th September 2003, CNSNews.com reported that Kevin Morris, chairman of the Police Superintendents Association proposed collecting genetic codes from every U.K. resident. The information would be stored in a database as a means to fight crime.
Mike Wendling commented that the “Police believe the database would help them tackle unsolved crimes and that public opposition to the plan is not as widespread as politicians and civil liberties campaigners say it is.”
He quoted Rick Naylor, the association's vice president, as saying that the database would not only aid police in closing cases but would also provide an additional deterrent to criminals. "We understand this technology and the potential that this technology has. It would be a major tool in the reduction of crime." |
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