Are UK Cops Pushing People Into the Pool?

A common response to the civil liberties concerns raised by Governments’ routine collection and storage of DNA profiles is to include everyone’s genetic information in forensic databases. This essentially expands the pool of suspects to entire populations in crimes where unknown perpetrators leave behind blood, saliva, or other biological materials. We have previously described this approach here on Biopolitical Times as “everybody in the pool!” While not widely employed, this proposal raises its own concerns, such as citizens’ presumptive freedom from government indefinitely retaining such sensitive information.

But a new report from the UK suggests that police may be taking a new tactic: arresting people for the sole purpose of getting their DNA. In Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear, the Human Genetics Commission quotes a retired police superintendent saying that the police in Wales and England have been arresting people just to get their information in DNA databases. The unidentified officer noted:

It is now the norm to arrest offenders for everything if there is a power to do so … It is apparently understood by serving police officers that one of the reasons, if not the reason, for the change in practice is so that the DNA of the offender can be obtained: samples can be obtained after arrest but not if there is a report for summons. It matters not, of course, whether the arrest leads to no action, a caution or a charge, because the DNA is kept on the database anyway.

While this approach might not have been wholly unforeseen, it’s still surprising to see evidence of it, no matter how anecdotal it may be.  In many ways, this is the next step following the implementation of any arrestee inclusion rule. Will Prop. 69 lead to similar tactics in California? Stay tuned . . .