In December, it was ruled that this contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights, but still the database keeps growing.
“We think the DNA database is really out of control,” Helen Wallace, the director of GeneWatch UK, told RT.
“It was set up to keep the DNA of convicted criminals, but now it contains about five million people’s profiles, about a million of whom may well be innocent and many of whom are children.”
Research has shown that the database is racially biased. Three out of every four young black men have their genetic DNA code stored, suggesting the police arrest far more black people than white, even though statistics say whites have a higher rate of offending. Matilda MacAttram, the director of Black Mental Health, argues this effectively criminalizes an entire community.
“Statistically, the genetic heritage of every black citizen in the UK is on a criminal database, even though this group doesn’t have a higher propensity to commit a crime,” she said.
“And in this country, which is held up as a bastion for civil liberties and human rights, one is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law, and until the law changes, that’s what the police who are supposed to be upholding the law should adhere to.”
The organization Black Mental Health UK hopes a change of government at parliamentary elections (which must take place by June next year) will bring about a change in policy concerning the national database.
Opposition parties support the system that currently exists in Scotland where the law on genetic information storage is different from the rest of Britain. There, DNA is collected on arrest, but automatically deleted from files in the vast majority of cases if no charges are brought.
“We need a different system. We need a system where the reality is if you are arrested for an offence and you’re cleared, that your samples are cleared off the system,” David Burrowes, the Shadow Justice Minister pointed out.
“But only in particular circumstances such as those who are charged with serious violence or sexual offenses should they have their samples kept for a period of up to five years, as happens in Scotland,” he added.
In the meantime, the database continues to grow, and introducing the Scottish system isn’t even under discussion by the ruling Labour party.
Despite a decision by the European Court of Human Rights that retaining innocent people’s DNA is illegal, the police are still adding 400,000 profiles to the database every month.
In August, a consultation on the future of the database will be held, but police chiefs at Scotland Yard and the Home Office, responsible for British internal security, still proposes keeping the DNA of innocent people for up to 12 years.
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