AS many as 48,000 `innocent' people from Greater Manchester are on the national DNA database.
Greater Manchester Police has added about 230,000 DNA profiles to the database since it was started in 1995. But it has been estimated from a national figure that as many as 48,000 are from people who have never been convicted of any crime.
Hazel Grove MP Andrew Stunell, backed by civil rights group Liberty, has demanded that the `innocents' are removed immediately.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that keeping innocent people's DNA on a criminal register is a breach of the Human Rights Convention and it should be removed `within a proportionate period'.
That ruling prompted a government review of whose DNA should be kept and for how long but the results will not be announced until autumn.
Lib Dem MP Mr Stunell said: "No one has any quarrel with convicted people having their DNA on a database.
"But if somebody is just a witness or has been found innocent, their DNA should not be retained."
Bill Hulme, 67, from Offerton, had a DNA sample taken and put on the database when he was arrested for alleged assault in 2007. He was cleared, but his profile is still on the database.
"I just think it's wrong," he said. "I've never offended in my life - and I was innocent. When I was arrested, I was told the sample would be destroyed if I wasn't convicted."
Dr Peter Hall, GMP's forensic services director, said the force was one of the largest `and will naturally provide large numbers of DNA samples to the database as part of our fight against crime'.
Dr Hall added: "We have always complied with national guidelines."
Home Office figures show 4,463,963 DNA profiles have been added to the national database since 1995.
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citycentre, manchester (11/08/2009 at 08:22)
The Higher Openshaw Exile, MANCHESTER (11/08/2009 at 09:18)
Esso Blue. One who pwess all button is not always well in head, Manchester (11/08/2009 at 09:30)
tony (11/08/2009 at 10:45)
Left wing Communists in all but name. AND you voted them in! Kick em' out
The Voice of Reason, Manchester (11/08/2009 at 11:33)
The Voice of Reason, Manchester (11/08/2009 at 11:42)
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act empowered and compelled the UK Police to take and retain DNA samples from any person required or agreeing to do so. That perverse and ludicrous situation has been to the European Court of Human Rights and deemed totally lawful, it isn't the cops we should be lambasting its the UK Govt.The police are merely followers of the situation, not the makers of it!
Esso Blue. One who pwess all button is not always well in head, Manchester (11/08/2009 at 12:33)
11/08/2009 at 11:33
That is nice to know, but if you joined before the implementation do you still have to give it.
Esso Blue. One who pwess all button is not always well in head, Manchester (11/08/2009 at 12:45)
nyb, ex manc (11/08/2009 at 15:38)
Voice of Reason, you too miss the point, which is the retention of DNA after someone has been proven innocent, not the taking of it in the first place.
As usual our police overstep their legal mandate, and have to be forced to back down, unfortunately not by our own Stasi Government, but by the hated European Court
citycentre, manchester (11/08/2009 at 16:26)
Or even not proven guilty
mark quck (11/08/2009 at 18:55)