The DNA snatchers: Police arresting innocents just to grab genetic details for Big Brother database



Innocent: Police are arresting people in order to get their DNA details on the national database

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.



Campaigners have long feared officers were carrying out mass sweeps of the population to load their samples on the database, and make future crime fighting easier.

The result is one million entirely innocent people having their genetic details logged by the state.



The Commission said one of the consequences of current DNA laws was that young black men are 'very highly over-represented', with more than three quarters of those aged 18-35 on the database.

Professor Montgomery warned this was creating a 'spiral of suspicion' among sections of society.

A retired senior police officer, a superintendent, told the commission: 'It is now the norm to arrest offenders for everything if there is a power to do so.

'It is apparently understood by serving police officers that one of the reasons, if not the reason, for the change in practice is so that the DNA of the offender can be obtained.'



Officers in England and Wales are entitled to take samples from everyone they arrest for a recordable offence.

Proposals within the Crime and Security Bill - published last week - will for the first time put a time limit, in most cases six years, on how long profiles are stored when the alleged offender is either not charged or later cleared.



But there are no plans to reduce police powers to take samples on arrest.

Poll Should police be allowed to take a DNA sample from every person they arrest? Yes No Should police be allowed to take a DNA sample from every person they arrest? Yes 3125 votes

No 5355 votes Now share your opinion





One possibility is to only take DNA when a suspect is charged - making it harder for police to target innocents for their DNA.

In a 110-page report, the commission said more detailed research is required to evaluate how useful the database is in helping to solve crimes, describing current evidence as 'flimsy'.

It accused politicians of using single case studies where the database has secured a conviction instead of carrying out a rigorous evaluation of its scale and function.

Latest Government figures show the costs of running the system - the largest in the world - have risen dramatically, to £4.3million from £2.1million in just a year.

Over the past two years, more than 1.17million new profiles have been added to the database but the number of DNA-related detections fell from a peak of 41,148 in 2006-07 to 31,915 in 2008-09.

LibDem spokesman Chris Huhne said: 'The Government's cavalier attitude to DNA retention has put us in the ridiculous situation where people are being arrested just to have their DNA harvested.



'Ministers make no distinction between innocence and guilt and as a result everyone is treated like a suspect.'

Liberty warned police were being given a 'perverse incentive' to arrest individuals just to get their details on the database.

Tory home affairs spokesman James Brokenshire said: 'For too long the Government has had a policy of growing the DNA database for the sake of it, regardless of guilt or innocence.'

Tories last night attacked reported Government plans to charge innocent people a £200 fee to apply to have their names removed from the national DNA database.



And they called for England and Wales to follow the Scottish model by not retaining the DNA of such innocents, save in exceptional circumstances. The Government has proposed such DNA should be kept for six years.



Tory security spokesman Baroness Neville-Jones told the Lords: 'If it is the case that making an application for removal is subject to a £200 fee, several individuals will be prevented from making any appeal or indeed getting their names off the database.



'Perhaps the Government is using the right of individuals to appeal to help fill the big public sector deficit.'



