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National DNA database - Good thing?
Well on the one hand, if you've done nothing wrong you've nothing to fear - right?
Read a copper's view....
Speaking as somebody who has access to the national DNA database, and occasionally uses it as well, it’s a very fine crime fighting tool with lots of benefits for crime detection. BUT.
If your DNA is at a crime scene you will have to use some bloody clever tactics and arguments to explain yourself, if you intend to deny you were there. If your DNA is at a location YOU WERE THERE that’s all there is to it. No room for argument. Your only defence is to explain away your reason for it being there.
BUT DNA can be transferred. It can be relocated by anybody who knows what they are doing. If you leave a hair sample at a location, it can be moved to another location. If you cut yourself on a piece of broken glass, that blood sample can be moved to another location. Therefore DNA is far from being a fool proof way of proving you were somewhere. Even good old fashioned fingerprints, can be uplifted and placed on something else.
You can carry somebody else’s DNA on your cloths in the form of a skin cell, which can fall off and end up on somebody else’s cloths. So putting it simply, it can be quite dangerous to use DNA as absolute proof of anything.
All police officers are required to supply their employer with a sample of their fingerprints. Fair enough you say !!!!! A few years ago we were told that all police officers had to provide a DNA sample as well. I refused!!!! Why ??? Well because there is a huge gulf of difference between DNA and fingerprints. Fingerprints are simply greasy marks. Nothing else. But to me DNA is not only private, it’s possibly the most intimate thing you have. DNA has to be physically removed from you in order to supply it. It’s intrusive and if I don’t consent to it any attempt to take it from me is an assault. Which is of course what I pointed out when I was told to supply it. So I informed my employers that if any attempt was made to take my DNA I’d consider myself as being assaulted and I’d defend myself accordingly. They backed down.
Nobody but me has the right to my DNA if I’ve done nothing wrong. If you are convicted or a crime, yes you should be made to supply it. By force if required. If you are later found not guilty the DNA should be destroyed. BUT nobody anywhere should be made to supply the most intimate and private thing they have. Your DNA is basically a set of plans for you. Every single part of who and what you are, is contained in that DNA strand.
The possibility that any DNA of yours could fall into the wrong hands is too great. The government has a woeful record for mismanaging databases. I’d not trust these fools with anything of mine. So if anybody wants my DNA today or in the future, they’ll have to accept the injuries that they’ll incur trying to get it !!!!
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