The million plus innocent DNA profiles on the national database remains one of the great intrusions on liberty in our country today. Despite good pre-election sounds from both of the coalition parties (in particular from now Immigration Minister, Damian Green) there has been little movement towards ending this injustice.
We do expect to see it included in the coming 'Freedom Bill', and note with distaste that the new leader of the Labour Party is unlikely to help in the push for DNA database reform; but stories like this one from Thinq.co.uk remind us that there is no time like the present for a much needed change:
Police will soon have the means to grab someone's genetic sample and run it through the national DNA database while waiting in the street, if early trials by military industrial giant Lockheed Martin are successful.
Handheld genetic scanners are on the drawing board, while the first suit-case-sized prototype will be tested by police forces within the year.
The RapI.D. DNA test technology will give police unprecedented power to identify someone and check them against a criminal database.
"We expect to be able to conduct genetic ID testing in under one hour," said a spokeswoman for ZyGEM, which is producing the while-you-wait DNA test.
Which is tremendous news: the illegal (as ruled by the European Court) practice of retaining the DNA of innocent people is now set to become even easier.
In case you have been taken in by the previous Government's loyalty to keeping innocent people on the DNA database, I would like to point you towards our own research paper - Cataloguing the Innocent - and the selection of stories we have on this issue here.
By Dylan Sharpe
This is the same Lockheed Martin that's running the UK census.
Posted by: richard | 30/09/2010 at 03:39 PM
RapID more like RapeID
ID rape - you heard about it here first
Posted by: Purlieu | 30/09/2010 at 05:48 PM
I'm assuming that somewhere in our bloated legal system there is a law that makes it illegal to knowingly take any action that would assist/result in a the committing of a crime?
Having read your interesting research paper 'Cataloguing the Innocent' it would appear that the government and police are currently unable to comply with the ECHR ruling regarding the removal of the data of innocent people from the DNA database.
Would it then not be reasonable to refuse to supply a DNA sample on the grounds that I would inevitably be assisting the police to commit a crime:)
Ah! if only life where that simple!
Posted by: Russ | 25/10/2010 at 01:22 PM
nothing is impossible for a willing heart.
Posted by: coach outlet | 13/11/2010 at 02:45 AM