Calls for DNA database growth are worrying
Two bits of news over the weekend - the first that a senior police officer has called for the DNA database to be widened to include eveyone, and the second that the Crown Prosecution Service has admitted it failed to run checks on 2,000 crime suspects for over a year. Both are worrying.
The failure of the CPS to carry out these checks is yet another example of the public having been put at risk by the slapdash way that data is handled across Government departments.
The Government is investing a huge amount of money and faith into the power of databases without having the faintest idea of how to run them properly, and calls for the national DNA database to include details of everybody regardless of their criminal record should be seen in this light.
The DNA database has grown at an enormous rate, including the addition of many people who have not committed any crime, but it still needs basic human competence to work. Regardless of the civil liberties arguments against the database, which I think are absolutely compelling, it should be clear even to those who disagree with them that this government (and perhaps any government) cannot be trusted to handle incredibly sensitive and personal data without hitches.
Rick
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