The director of Genewatch UK, Dr Helen Wallace, has moved to allay people’s fears of dangerous rapists and murderers escaping detection after inaccurate claims relating to the DNA database were published in The Times yesterday. The claims were made on Tuesday during police evidence to the committee of MPs discussing the Protection of Freedoms Bill.
It includes provisions for the removal of more than a million innocent people from the DNA database, which police suggested could lead to 1,000 crimes a year not being solved. GeneWatch dispute the figures, and claim they are seriously misleading as well as having the potential to spread panic through the populace. They released a statement explaining:
“The figures are exaggerated because they are based on a false assumption that innocent people are as likely to commit future offences as people convicted of serious or multiple offences: in fact about eight out of ten offences are committed by a small number of repeat offenders. They are also estimates of database matches not convictions: only about a quarter of matches lead to convictions. Less that one per cent of crimes involving a DNA match are rapes and most rapes involve disputes about consent that cannot be resolved using DNA.”
Taking account of these factors, GeneWatch presented their own adjusted estimates of around 12 crimes a year. In addition, these are not serious crimes such as murder or rape, but ‘high volume’ crimes such as theft and burglary. They also brought up some of the strangest reported cases of innocent people on the DNA datavase such as:
“a 12-year old-schoolboy arrested for allegedly stealing a pack of Pokemon cards; a grandmother arrested for failing to return a football kicked into her garden; a ten-year-old victim of bullying who had a false accusation made against her; a 14-year-old girl arrested for allegedly pinging another girl's bra; a 13-year-old who hit a police car with a snowball; a computer technician wrongly accused of being a terrorist; Janet Street-Porter; comedian Mark Thomas; and MPs Greg Hands and Damian Green.”
It will always be in the interest of the police to maintain the largest possible DNA database, as it can on occasion make their admittedly difficult work easier. However, holding the records of more than a million innocent citizens, including an estimated 100,000 children, for the sake of 12 low level crimes a year is completely disproportionate. Here at Big Brother Watch we hope the records are destroyed as soon as possible.
The night stalker case which has just seen a conviction has an interesting twist on this.
The polce got a name and it was similar to a name that was on the DNA database, so they followed up on that person (who wsn't a match) and didn't follow up throughly enough on the real suspect.
See here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12609165
Posted by: Pete | 24/03/2011 at 06:56 PM
are the coalition going to delete all the innocent peoples profiles from the police national computer (PNC)which are now held for 100 years from arrest,before it was only 42 days fro all innocent people.The DNA is one database and the PNC is another affecting visa and employment for innocent people fro the rest of their lives,all details are on the genewatch homepage,contact your MP to change ths law and get it included in this freedom bill!
Posted by: mark williams | 27/03/2011 at 08:50 PM
And this is before you start on the fact that DNA "evidence" is far from infallible as it proponents claim.
Posted by: hovis | 28/03/2011 at 12:56 PM