egafd.com

The UK DNA database 'Will Span Most of The UK Population'


The UK Government's DNA retention policy combined with increasingly sophisticated statistical techniques means that eventually most citizens in the UK will be linked to data stored on the police's DNA database, according to a privacy law expert.

I believe this breaches the right to a private life under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) .

Be afraid because DNA evidence is portable and a corrupt policeman's dream. They can get you all now.

Mike Freeman

We are of course told that inclusion on the database doesn't imply guilt. Some years ago there was a proposal for coppers to volunteer their DNA so that scene of crime officers could quickly eliminate spurious DNA evidence from an incident. How many do you think volunteered? They know perfectly well how such a database will be mis-used ( by the police themselves) and refused. Many no doubt were wary of paternity investigations.

Last week the police was looking for a murder suspect and provided the media with this narrow description: "white male, 30 to 50 years old". Were they talking about me? !shocked!

As no government can be trusted not to abuse a DNA database of the whole population, I'm for not letting them have one in the first place. And your sample should be destroyed not kept if you are released uncharged, or subsequently acquited. This is the back door way of getting a large number without specific legislation to take them from everybody. Technically the police can now take one for any arrestable offence, which means absolutely everything they take an interest in, be it dropping litter, speeding, to the more obvious stuff.

warren zevon rip wrote:

> Interesting that you see speeding as less serious than "the
> more obvious crimes". Potentially it is murder, or at least
> manslaughter to drive fast in a built up area.
>
I dont at all, and in previous posts I have made clear what I think of motoring offences, but it not something ( 35 in a 30 limit) you would normally expect to be arrested for and have your DNA taken.



> As for your main point - if the police are already corrupt,
> they will be locking innocent people up already. They can fake
> it even easier if there is no DNA to prove them wrong. So the
> problem you are worried about is police corruption, not DNA.
> You can never solve a problem unless you know what it is.

It is more a matter of government malfeasance, rather than pold. A future government might take it upon itself to isolate people with a certain DNA characteristic, or persecute them in some way. Or sell the database to insurance companies.
>
> DNA samples will be safe as long as the people in charge of
> them are independent of the police doing an investigation. I
> agree that safeguards should be stronger than perhaps they are
> just now, and that only forensic scientists that are
> transparently independent should be in charge. But all in all
> getting the right person quickly for serious crimes like drink
> driving, speeding next to a row of houses, rape, etc. must
> surely be a good thing.

Not if it assumes we are all suspect til proven innocent. And how will DNA solve speeding and drunk driving?


> Or we could hang onto an outdated concept of civil liberties
> (dreamt up before DNA had been discovered! lol) and give your
> local rapist a chance to fuck up some more girls' lives.

There is nothing outdated about my concept of civil liberties, especially now when our hard fought for protections from overwhening authority are under such threat. Just because the science is there doesn't mean we have to use it.

> Cheers mate!

Cheers