UK: DNA database - "citizens or suspects?"
01 January 2007
The UK's National DNA database, which was established in 1995 to cover convicted criminals, now maintains the profiles of over 3.5 million people, making it the largest in the world. The database has been expanded to incorporate permanently retained samples from those charged with a criminal offence but cleared or those who were arrested but not charged with an offence and even volunteers who give a sample in the course of an investigation; even crime victims may find their DNA on record. In July 2006 Dr Helen Wallace of GeneWatch said that
Britain's DNA Database is spiralling out of control… Thousands of innocent people, including children and victims of crime, are taking part in controversial genetic research without their knowledge or consent.
The organisation has also expressed concern at the use of new DNA technologies and oversight of the database and propose that greater transparency and accountability are needed. GeneWatch notes that
"Many people - including children and victims of crime - are currently unsure whether their DNA has been retained or not, and equally unclear who may access their genetic samples and data and how they may be used. Many decisions - for example, regarding research uses of the database - appear to have been made on a secretive and ad hoc basis, without proper scrutiny or oversight and with no public information, let alone engagement in the decisions that are made"
Among the wide-range of relatively untested DNA techniques that have caused GeneWatch concern are:
Low Copy Number DNA analysis: This allows a profile to be extracted from a single cell and has led the Director of Forensic Science at Edinburgh to warn that innocent people may be wrongly identified as criminal suspects.
Genetic "photo-fit" techniques: GeneWatch believes that it is unclear whether police forces fully appreciate the limitations of these techniques, particularly in relation to ancestor testing and identification of ethnic ancestry.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms: While this can be useful in identifying victims from degraded DNA, it is strongly advocated by commercial companies for routine use in criminal investigations, raising issues of "about statistical power, costs and privacy".
GeneWatch also expressed its concern at the use of stored database samples for "genetic studies of the male Y-chromosome, without the consent of the people involved, as part of a controversial attempt to predict ethnicity from DNA." It says:
Many people on the Database would be unlikely to consent to genetic research on race, ancestry or ethnic appearance. Failure to involve people who are on the database in these decisions - whether they are prisoners or not - runs contrary to well established ethical principles, intended to ensure that the vulnerable are not exploited.
This massive expansion of the DNA database has largely taken place beyond public scrutiny while allowing "an unprecedented level of government surveillance" leading Genewatch to ask if we are "citizens or suspects".
In mid-March the Home Office released proposals for a further expansion of police powers to take DNA samples (along with fingerprints and other samples), and store them on national databases. According to
The Times newspaper (15.3.07) "People caught speeding, failing to wear a seatbelt, allowing their dog to foul the footpath and dropping litter could be forced to give fingerprints or DNA to police for checking against other databases". Gareth Crossman, policy director of Liberty, told the paper: "Today dropping litter and bad parking are lame excuses for an ever growing national DNA database."
For further information see the GeneWatch website:
http://genewatch.org/?als[cid]=396405
GeneWatch "Standard setting and quality regulation in forensic science: GeneWatch UK submission to the Home Office Consultation" O