Innocents to stay on police computer

Monday, December 21, 2009

Any innocent who will see their DNA profile deleted will still have their details stored on the Police National Computer (PNC), it has been revealed.

An investigation by The Observer has discovered that when the police start to delete the profiles of innocents on the national DNA database (NDNAD), a permanent record will still remain on the PNC.

Prior to the expansion of the DNA database, details were deleted on acquittal or if charges were dropped after 42 days. But according to the NDNAD's annual report in 2005 it has become necessary "to retain a nominal record of every person arrested for a recordable offence on the Police National Computer". The report said this would help police identify and locate people in their investigations.

"Keeping permanent records of arrest is unprecedented in British history and is open to serious abuse," said Helen Wallace, director of the campaign group GeneWatch UK. "Failing to delete police records of people who are innocent means business as usual for the surveillance state."

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) warned: "All records held on the [police national computer] are readily accessible to any serving police officer acting in his or her official capacity and this access is frequently used to run a 'name check' on individuals who come into contact with the police. Given this level of access, the commissioner is concerned that the very existence of a police identity record created as a result of a DNA sample being taken on arrest could prejudice the interests of the individual to whom it relates by creating inaccurate assumptions about his or her criminal past."

The Home Office has started to push through new regulations for the database to accommodate a European court ruling that said the permanent retention of DNA data is "illegal". Instead the government will store innocents' data on the database after six years. For those suspected of sexual and violent crime, this could be as long as 12 years.

"The way in which permanent DNA retention leads to indefinite arrest records demonstrates the self-justification of the database state," said Isabella Sankey, policy director of civil liberties campaign group Liberty.

"Government has fed a culture where arrest might as well be conviction, and suspicion equals guilt. In this climate, a permanent record of suspicion can seriously damage the life chances of any young person who has ever had their collar felt by the police."

In April, there were 986,185 people with records on the DNA database who had no recorded conviction, caution, final warning or reprimand, suggesting around a million innocent people will continue to have the records of their arrest entered on the police system.

A spokesman for the Criminal Records Bureau said: "An arrest with no further action may show up as part of an enhanced check, but the decision is made by the chief officer in each police force if they believe that the information ought to be included and that it is relevant to the application."