It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
(visit the link for the full news article)
Police are to trawl the country taking the DNA of convicted serious offenders who are not on the national database.
The move will start with murderers and rapists in prison but Home Secretary Jacqui Smith disclosed that she is looking at extending police powers for those in the community as well.
It is aimed at capturing those who were convicted of serious offences before the database was set up in 1995 and will extend to those convicted overseas.
But the expansion of DNA taking came as Ms Smith signalled hundreds of thousands of other profiles are likely to be removed following a European ruling over the retention of DNA of innocent people.
She is expected to set a time limit on how long profiles of those who were never charged or acquitted can be retained - similar to other countries - which could affect up to 1.7 million DNA and fingerprint details currently on police databases.
She also announced a ban on keeping the DNA of children aged under 10 and profiles of juveniles aged under 18 may be wiped when the youngsters reach adulthood.
There are an estimated 4.4 million profiles on the system, and around 850,000 are people who were never charged, acquitted or had the case dropped. A similar number of people's fingerprints are also on the fingerprint database, which was equally affected by the ruling."
Originally posted by Yoda411
A DNA database of serious offenders isn't necessarily a bad thing. However we want to perceive it, it is the future of crime scene investigations.