Around 183 crimes went unsolved for up to eleven years because the DNA database was not updated with more than 26,000 DNA samples taken between 1995 and 2004. The crimes whose perpetrators got away with for a decade or more included "one paedophile offence, three robberies, nine burglaries, 19 drugs offences and 62 thefts". And still around 5,000 of those samples have not been added, so the full extent of the failures are not yet known.
Since April 2004, DNA samples taken from people who were either acquitted of the charges made against them or were never even charged in the first place have been allowed to be added to the database. This now means that the database now tops 4 million samples, 5.5% of the population of the UK, of which:
"there are now 324,647 people, around 10 per cent of the total, whose DNA is held by the police despite their being either cleared of the offence for which they were arrested or despite not being charged or cautioned at all."This means that a huge number of people who have never been convicted of a crime have had their DNA taken and held in a national database. Patently ridiculous. A case could be made for keeping the DNA of people who went to court but were acquitted by a jury, since there must have been sufficient evidence for the police and CPS to believe that they were guilty. But there is no case that can be made for keeping DNA samples from people who haven't even been charged! What will the next step be? Taking DNA samples from babies and adding them to the database then, just in case they commit a crime at some point in their life?! It is obscene.
Some say that "if you don't have anything to hide then you won't mind it" but that holds no water. It is not right for the government to hold details of everyone's fingerprints, retina scans, or DNA. That is a policy more reminiscent of a police state than of a liberal democracy.
Source: BBC, The Times, The Guardian
