Police are arresting innocent people in order to get their hands on as many DNA samples as possible, senior Government advisers revealed last night.
The Human Genetics Commission said the Big Brother tactic was creating a ’spiral of suspicion’ among the public.
The panel – which contains some of Britain’s leading scientists and academics – said officers should no longer routinely take samples at the point of arresting a suspect.
They also called for all police – including support staff – to place their own DNA on the national database in a show of solidarity with a public being routinely placed under suspicion.
By law, officers are only allowed to make an arrest if they have ‘ reasonable suspicion’ that a person has committed a crime.
But the HGC, which has carried out a lengthy review of the merits of the database, said evidence had emerged of police arresting people purely so they could take their DNA.
Its chairman, Professor Jonathan Montgomery, said: ‘People are arrested in order to retain DNA information that might not have been arrested in other circumstances.’
The claim, which was backed by evidence from a senior police officer, delivers a significant blow to the Government’s defence of the database – which contains more than 5.6million samples.
Source/Full Story: Mail Online
Related Items
- May 3, 2009 — Police to destroy DNA profiles of 800,000 innocent people (0)
DNA profiles of almost a million innocent people are to be destroyed as part of a major overhaul of the police national database. They include people … - October 7, 2009 — Orange County D.A.’s DNA database rapidly growing (0)
The Orange County district attorney’s office has nearly quadrupled its DNA database over the last nine months, to about 15,000 individual profiles, an… - June 4, 2009 — Former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove warns against ‘disturbing’ surveillance society (0)
The former head of MI6 has hit out at ‘striking and disturbing’ invasions of privacy by the Big Brother state. Sir Richard Dea… - April 19, 2009 — F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases (0)
Law enforcement officials are vastly expanding their collection of DNA to include millions more people who have been arrested or detained but not yet … - February 27, 2009 — UK: Government plans to keep DNA samples of innocent (0)
Hollywood might be the center of trendsetting when it comes to fashionable dress and abominable personal behaviors, but it seems to me that Britain ha…
