It has been revealed in data released under freedom of information laws that the number of children on the Police DNA database in Sussex has ballooned to nearly 23,000. Under-18s represent 21% of 107,598 DNA records held by local police despite the fact that they may not even have been charged with a crime. Swabs can be taken without any consent from those arrested and kept indefinitely on the database, even if the person whose DNA is recorded is proved innocent.
The database is supposed to aid the fight against crime, but figures revealed by the Lib Dems nationally show that nearly 2.3m people with criminal records are missing from the national database. That is over 40% of Britain's convicted criminals. Those who are on the database include over 340,000 children as well as 850,000 adults without a criminal record. Last year, the number of crimes solved using DNA evidence fell by 6% in Sussex and 12% nationally to 0.36% of all recorded crime.
Whilst the European Court of Human Rights ruled today that two innocent men should be removed from the DNA database, over 40% of Britain's convicted criminals continue to escape recording.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, Norman Baker said:
"Because it has proved easier to target the young and the innocent than criminals, the enormous increase in DNA samples has not led to a corresponding increase in convictions. Nobody who committed a crime before 2001 and who has evaded arrest since then will have their records on the computer, so many real crooks are avoiding detection.
"The national DNA database is clearly not working properly. It has been targeting the young and the innocent whilst letting those with criminal records off. This has to stop. The Government's policy is both shambolic and grotesquely unfair."
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