Sat, 24 Feb 2007
In January, the Brent Council unanimously passed a
motion
calling for:
- Brent Police, and the Metropolitan Police, to end the
practice of automatically taking DNA samples on arrest
- An end to taking DNA samples for Fixed Penalty and Public
Order offences – which has contributed to the heavily imbalanced racial
profile of the register
- Regular statistics by area detailing the ethnic breakdown
of people whose samples have been collected, for monitoring by Police
Authorities and local partnerships
- A national framework to govern collection of DNA samples,
removing the discretion of local Borough Commanders to require these
automatically
- The destruction of DNA records held on innocent people who
have not been charged with or found guilty of any offence, and measures
to monitor this.
This is a very positive news and I hope other councils will follow, to
increase the pressure on the ACPO. The Voice published an
article
explaining that the motion was motivated by the personal experience of
Liberal Democrat councillor James Allie.
Background on the issue can be found in the
Should
the Police keep your DNA forever? post.
(Via Genewatch's Briefing
for Councillors and Police Authorities: Police retention of DNA)
