Black DNA could decide British election

Anger mounts over prejudiced database

Deja vu

"How did we get here?" Olu Alake, president of 100 Young Black Men of London, asked the meeting. "How did the United Kingdom, the home of haebus corpus, the home of the mother of parliaments, the home of human rights and everything else - how did we end up with the largest DNA database in the world?" 

The answer, the meeting was told, was that the Labour government decreed in 2001 that anyone who was charged with an offence should have their DNA stored on the suspect database, even if charges were later dropped or they were found innocent in a court of law. Then in 2003, the government decreed that police should take DNA samples from anyone arrested, and that the DNA should be kept even if they were not charged or convicted. The police had done the rest, through their tendency to arrest black people.

The meeting heard many stories of innocent people having their DNA taken and stored by police.

Alake said his nephew had been arrested after becoming angry at police. He didn't even know his DNA had been taken. He thought the swab was some sort of breathalyser. He became even more angry when Alake told him what had been done with his DNA.

Tether said her friend in Brent was wrongfully arrested on Christmas Day by police searching for a suspect of a different age and height. He was released later that day after the real suspect confessed, but his DNA was subsequently kept on the suspect database.

Pastor Hall spoke for the first time in public about his own son having had "an issue with drugs at an early age". His son had since matured, but had joined the ranks of those, the meeting was told, who would now be stigmatised for the rest of their lives.

Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield, cited the case of two boys, aged 13 and 14, who had been arrested and swabbed for building a tree house in a cherry tree.  "When I was young, you wouldn't have been arrested for building a tree house," said Holmes. "That would've been what kids did. In this day and age, it's seen as a recordable offence."

Childhood and innocence

Coles said the retention of DNA could have serious consequences for children. She said the Government was trying to put legislation through parliament that would mean children who commit minor offences would have their DNA removed from the database five years after their 18th birthday. But children who were convicted of two minor offences would have their DNA retained indefinitely.

"You could have been convicted of shop-lifting when you are 10 and again when you are 12 and you could be on the DNA database forever," she said.

The meeting heard how the DNA database reversed the presumption of innocence that was a cornerstone of British law. Cole said the database could risk stigmatising people because it made them look suspect.

The police performed a digital sweep of the DNA database every night, searching its suspect list against recently recorded crimes. The DNA database "conflates arrest with conviction and guilt," said Coles.

Holmes said the Liberal Democrats promised to delete the DNA records of anyone not convicted of a crime from the DNA database. Their retention was a "travesty" and a "disgrace", he said.

James Brokenshire, Conservative MP for Hornchurch, told the meeting that the DNA of innocent people should be removed in all instances, except where someone had been suspected of a serious crime.