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Outrage at 500,000 DNA database
mistakes
Toby Helm
London
Telegraph
Monday Aug 27, 2007
Civil liberties campaigners
and MPs have raised doubts about the national DNA database after
the Home Office confirmed it contained more than 500,000 false
or wrongly recorded names.
Suspects arrested over any imprisonable offence, including rape
and murder, can have their DNA held even if they are not charged
or are acquitted.
The database, the biggest in the world, contains about four million
names.
But it has been dogged by problems. Statistics released by the
Home Office show it contains around 550,000 files with wrong or
misspelt names.
Lynne Featherstone, a Liberal Democrat frontbencher, told The
Daily Telegraph that she wanted a full parliamentary inquiry into
the "shocking" number of errors.
"What lies behind these statistics? Is it the police just
accept the 'say-so' of those whose DNA they are taking and don't
check their names and addresses?" she said.
(Article continues below)
"While the use of DNA can obviously be vital in solving
crimes, anything that raises questions about the credibility of
the base is not acceptable."
It is understood that some of the errors have been caused by
people deliberately giving someone else's name - or names of people
who do not exist. The database, which police are determined to
expand, also contains spelling errors and other inaccuracies.
Another source of concern to opponents, shown in the figures,
is that the system has the DNA profiles of about 150,000 children,
many of whom were arrested by police but found to be innocent.
Shami Chakrabarti, the director of civil rights group Liberty,
said the disclosure raised questions about police plans to expand
the database to include information about those suspected of far
less serious offences, such as dropping litter or dodging rail
fares.
"It is bad enough that we have a DNA database stuffed with
innocents not charged with any offence, containing too many children
and too great a percentage of ethnic minorities," she said.
"Now it turns out we don't know the accuracy of the data.
How many Postman Pats and Donald Ducks have entries on a system
worthy of the Keystone Cops?"
Ministers accept the system is suffering teething problems but
insist it is vital in solving crimes, some of which have remained
open for decades.
In a case in November 2005, a 50-year-old builder was found guilty
of a murder and rape that he committed in Essex 28 years ago.
He was stopped for drink- driving in 2004 and his DNA matched
a sample taken from the original crime scene.
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