DNA expert has second thoughts on national database

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061101/hl_nm/dna_pioneer_dc

DNA pioneer voices concern over database

By Astrid Zweynert Wed Nov 1, 1:41 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A pioneer of Britain's DNA database said on Wednesday it may have grown so far beyond its original purpose that it now risks undermining civil rights.


Professor Alec Jeffreys told BBC radio that hundreds of thousands of innocent people's DNA was now held on the database, a disproportionate number of them young black men.

The database, set up in 1995, has expanded to 3.6 million profiles, making it the largest in the world.

Everyone who has ever been arrested by the police, even if not charged, is obliged to provide a DNA sample for the database, which also includes victims of crime and others who have volunteered a sample to help a criminal investigation.

"The real concern I have in the UK is what I see as a sort of 'mission creep,"' said Jeffreys, who developed the techniques for DNA fingerprinting and profiling. When the database was initially established, it was meant to hold DNA from criminals, he added.

"Now hundreds of thousands of entirely innocent people are populating that database, people who have come to the police's attention for example by being charged with a crime and subsequently released."

The samples were "skewed socioeconomically and ethnically," he said. "In my view that is discriminatory."

Civil rights campaigners say a third of black males in England and Wales are on the database. They are also concerned about the lack of public consultation about the database.

DNA sampling has helped considerably in improving crime detection, helping to clear up cases that had remained unsolved for years.

For all recorded crime, the detection rate is 26 percent when there is no DNA evidence, but 40 percent when there is a sample, according to government data.

Jeffrey's comments coincided with the launch of a consultation on Wednesday to ask members of the public about their views on whether the laws allowing police to take, store and analyze DNA should be revised amid concern about a lack of public consultation on the database.

The study by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent research body, follows comments by British Prime Minister
Tony Blair this month that a maximum number of people should be included in the database as it was vital for catching serious criminals.

The Council said that police have powers, "unrivalled internationally," to take DNA from an arrested person without consent.

"We want to hear the public's views on whether storing the DNA profiles of victims and suspects who are later not charged, or acquitted, is justified by the need to fight crime," said Professor Bob Hepple, chairman of the Council.

[ilbob]

How is this significantly different than all the fingerprints the authorities have records of?

The main complaint seems to be that certain ethnic groups are disproportionately represented in the database, yet the story makes it clear mostly criminals, those arrested for crimes, and those giving samples voluntarily are in the database. The dis-proportionality seems to be based on a dis-proportionality of criminal behavior.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

My point was more about how the scope and nature of government data collection has grown far beyond what was intended.  The DNA database was instituted to keep a record of criminals' DNA, for use in crime fighting.  But surprise!  It now appears that there are millions of Brits with their DNA on file who have never, ever been involved in crime.  It's gotten so bad that even the guy who implemented the database now has concerns.

[cosine]

A pioneer of Britain's DNA database said on Wednesday it may have grown so far beyond its original purpose that it now risks undermining civil rights.

Wow, it looks like someone just realized that the sky is blue and that water is wet!