Comments on: Weighing the DNA Evidence http://www.newuniversity.org/2010/08/opinion/weighing-the-dna-evidence/ Thu, 24 May 2012 03:30:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Marcus Lasance http://www.newuniversity.org/2010/08/opinion/weighing-the-dna-evidence/comment-page-1/#comment-3477 Marcus Lasance Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:53:29 +0000 http://www.newuniversity.org/?p=14090#comment-3477 A point well put and showing common sense, often remarkably uncommon in hard line populist politicians and police officers who would have us believe DNA collection of innocent people is another form of crime fighting or acts as a deterrent somehow. Decent folk who for no good reason find themselves under the scrutiny of the Police and then get cleared take great exception when their DNA records are permanently stored alongside that of convicted rapists and murderers. In the UK Labour lost an election over this. Every time ex-prime minister Gordon Brown or the hapless Home Secretary Alan Johnson was asked how many extra 'convictions' the UK Police actually secured by hanging on to the DNA records of innocents they were lost for words and rather talked about hundreds of matches with crime scenes, which of course means nothing and can include household members of crime victims and clumsy policemen contaminating crime scenes. Only extra convictions obtained should be relevant. Cold statistics in the UK indicate that the detection rate of this otherwise excellent crime solving tool went down after the UK police forces started cramming the database with just about anyone they came into contact with. Then the European Court of Human Rights quite rightly convicted them for violating innocents' right to a private life. A point well put and showing common sense, often remarkably uncommon in hard line populist politicians and police officers who would have us believe DNA collection of innocent people is another form of crime fighting or acts as a deterrent somehow.

Decent folk who for no good reason find themselves under the scrutiny of the Police and then get cleared take great exception when their DNA records are permanently stored alongside that of convicted rapists and murderers.

In the UK Labour lost an election over this. Every time ex-prime minister Gordon Brown or the hapless Home Secretary Alan Johnson was asked how many extra ‘convictions’ the UK Police actually secured by hanging on to the DNA records of innocents they were lost for words and rather talked about hundreds of matches with crime scenes, which of course means nothing and can include household members of crime victims and clumsy policemen contaminating crime scenes. Only extra convictions obtained should be relevant.

Cold statistics in the UK indicate that the detection rate of this otherwise excellent crime solving tool went down after the UK police forces started cramming the database with just about anyone they came into contact with. Then the European Court of Human Rights quite rightly convicted them for violating innocents’ right to a private life.

]]>