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Ministers accused of trying
to build DNA database by stealth
JAMES SLACK
UK
Daily Mail
Thursday September 6, 2007
Ministers were last night accused of preparing a cloak-and-dagger
operation to record the DNA of every British citizen after claiming
there is a "real logic and cohesion" to the hugely controversial
idea.
Tony McNulty, who is in charge of the database, said he was "broadly
sympathetic" to a suggestion by senior judge Lord Justice
Sedley of "putting everybody on it" to help catch criminals.
The Police Minister admitted there were massive civil liberties
concerns, as well as practical difficulties, standing in the way
of making it compulsory to give a DNA sample, with babies being
swabbed at birth.
But the suspicion is growing that, once the DNA database reaches
a "tipping point", with millions of innocent people
logged on it, the Government will move to make it "universal".
Britain leads the way in the technology and already has the biggest
DNA database in the world.
There are four million samples stored - more than five per cent
of the population - and new profiles are being added at a rate
of one every 45 seconds.
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This rate could increase next year when ministers are expected
to confirm plans to allow anybody stopped by the police, including
speeding motorists, litterbugs and people who do not wear a seatbelt,
to have their DNA taken on the street.
Samples stay on the database even if a person - adult or child
- is proved to be innocent or no further action is taken.
Witnesses to crimes who volunteer their DNA to help police inquiries
also face having their details stored for life.
There are an estimated one million people on the database, including
100,000 children, who have never been convicted.
Critics described yesterday's developments as "chilling",
and another lurch towards a "Big Brother surveillance state".
They followed comments by Lord Justice Sir Stephen Sedley that
the entire UK population and every visitor to the country should
be on the national database.
The senior appeal judge, a former Communist, said the current
position of having some - but not all - innocent people on the
database was "indefensible".
The judge told BBC Radio 4: "It also means that a great
many people who are walking the streets, and whose DNA would show
them guilty of crimes, go free."
Mr McNulty said there would be obstacles to the plan, which would
face a barrage of protest from civil liberties groups.
It would also require a huge recruitment of staff to take and
input the samples of Britons alone, let alone the 100 million
foreigners who visit each year.
But he declared: "I think we are broadly sympathetic to
the thrust of what he has said.
"There is no Government plans to go to a compulsory database
now or in the foreseeable future.
"There is a logic to what Sir Stephen is saying. I have
said that there is a real logic and cohesion to the point that
says 'Well, put everybody on'."
The Home Office claims the database has been a great success
in catching criminals, with more than 40,000 crime scene matches
last year.
Officials say people picked up for minor offences have been linked
to crimes such as rape once their DNA had been taken.
But Opposition MPs accused Labour of secret plans to create a
universal database.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "What is vital is
that criminals are put on the DNA database but what the Government
currently puts on the database is totally arbitrary.
"The erratic nature of this database means that some criminals
have escaped having their DNA recorded whilst a third of those
people on the database - over a million people - have never been
convicted of a crime."
Liberal Democrat spokesman Nick Clegg said the Government had
a "cloak and dagger strategy of creating a universal database
behind the backs of the British people".
He added: "There is no earthly reason why someone who has
committed no crime should be on the database in the first place,
yet the Government is shoving the DNA details of thousands of
innocent people on to the database every month.
"This mealy-mouthed approach to an issue of fundamental principle
will only exacerbate public concerns about the onward march to
a surveillance state."
Shami Chakrabati, director of the civil rights pressure group
Liberty, said: "A database of those convicted of sexual and
violent crime is a perfectly sensible crimefighting measure.
"A database of every man, woman and child in the country
is a chilling proposal, ripe for indignity, error and abuse."
Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, said: "There
are significant risks associated with creating a universal database.
"It would be highly intrusive, and the more information
collected about us, the greater the risk of false matches and
other mistakes.
"The potential for technical and human error leading to
serious consequences cannot be under-estimated."
A spokesman for Gordon Brown said: "The Prime Minister is
very supportive of the DNA database which has been very successful
in tackling crime, but there are no plans to introduce a universal
compulsory or voluntary national database."
THE LEFT WING JUDGE
Lord Justice Sedley, a former Communist, is widely regarded as
one of the most Left-wing of current judges.
Sir Stephen is a strong supporter of human rights, and spent
his 28 years at the Bar working principally in the fields of civil
liberties and discrimination law.
In 2000, he was elected president of the British Institute of
Human Rights. His Who's Who entries, under recreations, have included
"changing the world".
He has said that judges should assert themselves to curb abuses
of Government power and failures in the democratic process.
In the 1970s he was a tutor at the Communist University of London,
a nine-day summer school organised by the Communist Party.
Its aims were to help students to develop a critical approach
to the material taught in their regular university or college
courses.
The father of three became a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1999,
and has also sat as an ad hoc judge in the European Court of Human
Rights.
THE FURY OF A FATHER
It took James Bristow, the manager of a large property firm, 13
months to have his daughter Caitlin's DNA details erased from
the national database.
Scroll down for more ...
The father of four from Wilmslow, Cheshire, said: "My daughter
is an articulate, privately- educated, straight-A student who
was violently assaulted by a gang of yobs in the local park.
"When she went to the police station to report it, one of
the gang claimed that Caitlin had assaulted him - I'm told this
is standard yob defence - and so her DNA was taken.
"I was furious. I complained to the Independent Police Complaints
Commission and it was only in July last year, 13 months after
the original incident, that Cheshire police admitted they had
made a mistake, and destroyed all her data.
"This hung over her head for a year - she used to be a county
sprinter but now she's given it all up.
"As I understand it, I was only the second person to get
a DNA profile removed, but I really do feel that this is another
freedom that has been eroded.'
THE TREE CLIMBERS
Three 12-year-old children were arrested, DNA tested and locked
up for playing in a tree.
Scroll down for more ...
Katy Smith, Sam Cannon and Amy Higgins were hauled into a police
station and kept in cells for two hours after they climbed into
a 20ft cherry tree to build a tree house.
Their shoes were removed and mugshots, DNA samples and mouth
swabs were taken.
Officers told the children they had been seen damaging the tree
in a wooded area of public land near their homes.
The frightened children admitted they had broken some loose branches
because they had wanted to build a tree house, but said they did
not realise what they had done was wrong.
Officers considered charging the children with criminal damage
but eventually decided a reprimand was sufficient.
Although the reprimand does not amount to a criminal record,
their details will be kept on file for up to five years.
The parents of the children, who all live in Halesowen, West
Midlands, accused officers of overreacting about the young friends,
who have never been in trouble with the police before.
But Superintendent Stuart Johnson, of West Midlands Police, said
he supported the officers' actions.
"West Midlands Police deals robustly with anti-social behaviour,"
he said. "By targeting what may seem to be relatively low-level
crime we aim to prevent it developing into more serious matters."
? Jack Saywood was the victim of mistaken identity when teachers
at his school gave police the wrong name after two pupils were
involved in a brawl.
Although 14-year-old Jack was miles away in his father Peter's
car at the time of the incident, he was arrested and had his fingerprints,
photograph and DNA profile taken.
Jack's mother Frances, an office manager from Welwyn Garden City
in Hertfordshire, said: "We were at the police station for
three hours before they admitted they had got the wrong boy and
that Jack could go.
"But when I said I wanted the DNA sample destroyed, they
told me it would remain on the national police database for ever."
Mrs Saywood went to her MP Grant Shapps, who was told that the
police were "adhering to legislation passed by Parliament"
and that they refused to wipe Jack's name from the DNA records
or destroy his samples.
He then found out that chief constables have the discretion to
decide on individual cases, and Jack's DNA records were destroyed.
Mrs Saywood added: "One day, will the DNA database be accessed
by potential employers? If I hadn't acted, Jack's details would
be on a criminal database for absolutely no reason."
THE INNOCENT PENSIONER
Pensioner Jeffrey Orchard had his DNA recorded after he was mistakenly
arrested, but police refused to remove it from the database.
Mr Orchard, 72, had his fingerprints, photograph and DNA taken
after he was asked to attend his local police station on suspicion
of damaging a car.
Dyfed-Powys police then told him they had made a mistake - because
they had caught the real culprit.
But they refused to remove his details.
Mr Orchard, a retired merchant seaman from Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire,
said: "This annoys me because I have not done anything wrong."
His Conservative MP, Stephen Crabb, has asked the force to use
its discretionary power to remove Mr Orchard's profile from the
database, but without success.
Mr Crabb, MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, said: "DNA profiles
can be a powerful tool in the fight against crime but a careful
balance needs to be struck.
"I think many reasonable people would agree that a pensioner
who was wrongly arrested over an incident should not have a lasting
record on a national database."
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