[LAF] Police told to ignore human rights ruling over DNA database

[VolodyA! V Anarhist]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/aug/07/dna-database-police-advice

Police told to ignore human rights ruling over DNA database

Chief constables across England and Wales have been told to ignore a landmark 
ruling by the European court of human rights and carry on adding the DNA 
profiles of tens of thousands of innocent people to a national DNA database.

Senior police officers have also been "strongly advised" that it is "vitally 
important" that they resist individual requests based on the Strasbourg ruling 
to remove DNA profiles from the national database in cases such as wrongful 
arrest, mistaken identity, or where no crime has been committed.

European human rights judges ruled last December in the S and Marper case that 
the blanket and indiscriminate retention of the DNA profiles and fingerprints of 
850,000 people arrested but never convicted of any offence amounts to an 
unlawful breach of their rights.

Britain already has the largest police national DNA database in the world, with 
5.8m profiles, including one in three of all young black males. Thousands more 
are being added each week.

So far the Home Office has responded to the judgment by proposing a 
controversial package to keep DNA profiles of the innocent for six to 12 years, 
depending on the seriousness of the offence. The official consultation period 
ended today.

The advice to senior officers comes in a letter from the Association of Chief 
Police Officers criminal records office. The letter, seen by the Guardian, tells 
chief constables that new Home Office guidelines following the ruling in the 
case of S and Marper are not expected to take effect until 2010.

"Until that time, the current retention policy on fingerprints and DNA remains 
unchanged," it says. "Individuals who consider they fall within the ruling in 
the S and Marper case should await the full response to the ruling by the 
government prior to seeking advice and/or action from the police service in 
order to address their personal issue on the matter.

"Acpo strongly advise that decisions to remove records should not be based on 
[the government's] proposed changes. It is therefore vitally important that any 
applications for removals of records should be considered against current 
legislation."

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats' shadow home secretary, said it was clear 
from the letter that the government intends to string out its response to the 
European court ruling that they should not keep the DNA of innocent people.

"It is unacceptable that new guidance won't be provided to police until 2010. In 
that time thousands more innocent people will have been added to the database, 
where they will remain for years.

"It is not up to police forces to ignore court judgments because they or their 
masters do not like them."

The tone of the letter is in sharp contrast to what the Home Office told the 
House of Lords in June when peers sharply criticised the government's intention 
to push through their plan to keep innocent people's DNA for up to 12 years by 
using "back door" secondary legislation to get it through parliament. The Home 
Office told peers that they could not afford the delay that would be involved in 
making the changes in primary legislation that would allow MPs and peers to 
fully debate the changes.

Home Office officials said they face a possible "surge of pressure" from 
individuals seeking deletion of their data from the relevant databases. 
Ministers have already received some legal challenges.

But the Lords committee on delegated powers and regulatory reform has told 
ministers that provision "about this important and complex subject should be in 
primary legislation".




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