I look forward to listening to the BBC Radio 4 item.
As I understood it you merely have to be arrested to enable a DNA sample to
be taken.
Charging for any offence occurs at a later stage following arrest.
Whilst that may seem a mute point there are significant implications as
some separate judgement on the validity of any arrest as measured against
defined legal criteria occurs within a custody suite when a custody
sergeant either accepts or refuses the charge when determining the validity
of the arrest/charge.
Once taken the police can retain DNA samples even if no crime is
subsequently shown to have been committed by either a refused charge or a
not guilty verdict.
Simple measurements of growth in the size of the DNA database against the
number of actual convictions should provide a method of identifying a level
of the more intrusive or unnecessary collection, whilst looking at the
relevance of DNA to any crime(s) committed, or their detection, could
provide other measures of adequacy, relevance and proportionality. Just as
logical would be using arrest figures as a measure to determine how many
tests were not taken. As with many matters progress can be measured in
various ways.
Not being up to date or looking in any logical or measured way at any
implications of detail, especially affects created by the HRA, I may need
to be corrected in time by the more knowledgeable members of the group.
Ian W
> -----Original Message-----
> From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection
> issues [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Ibrahim Hasan
> Sent: 04 January 2006 10:39
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: DNA database
>
>
> There was an item on Today on Radio 4 about the very wide use
> of the DNA database. Apparently you can be asked for a DNA
> sample even if you have committed/been arrested for a very
> minor offence.
>
> Just caught the last bit. Simon Davies from Privacy
> International was on.
>
> Fits in nicely with the previous discussion about the
> surveillance society.
>
> The BBC radio listen again function may well have it on soon.
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today
>
> Ibrahim Hasan
>
> Act Now Training
> www.actnow.org.uk
> Information Law Training for the Public Sector
> Please check out our new 2006 course program
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