DNA retention hampers policing
Damian Green writes in the Guardian Comment is Free web site:
Until the policy was declared illegal by the European court of human rights, the government planned to keep the DNA of the innocent forever, making us all suspects for life. Ministers, having dragged their feet for months, have now offered a system where they will only keep the DNA for six years. This is still unacceptable, because it is unnecessary in crime-fighting terms. A system similar to the one in Scotland, in which the DNA of those arrested but not charged for the most serious crimes can only be kept for three years would work well and gain public acceptance. We need to adopt something much more like the Scottish model in the rest of the UK.
It is that issue of public acceptance that worries me most. Once the DPP had declared I had no case to answer, following my arrest for leaking embarrassing stories about Home Office failures, I demanded that my DNA record be destroyed. After a certain amount of huffing and puffing, the Metropolitan police announced that I was an “exceptional case” and agreed. I was immediately flooded by letters and emails from some of the other million people in the same position as me, wanting to know how they could be declared exceptional as well.
There is no good answer, because as far I can see the only exceptional thing about my case was the publicity it generated: there are hundreds of thousands of equally innocent people who don’t want to be on a database but who have been told to lump it. These are the people who the authorities should be worried about, because they are angry and alienated.
NO2ID supports the Reclaim Your DNA campaign to help people in this situation.
