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Panorama: Two thirds polled in favour of compulsory national DNA database
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Sixty-six per cent of those questioned for 91Èȱ¬ One's Panorama (Monday 24 September at 8.30pm) said they would approve of a new law requiring all adults to give a sample of their DNA to help with the prevention and detection of crime.
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But a senior forensic scientist Professor Allan Jamieson, Director, Forensic Institute, based in Glasgow, warns in the programme that too much trust is already placed in DNA results.
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"My opinion is that people put too much faith in DNA. They're giving it an infallibility which it does not have."
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He explains that finding DNA traces does not always tell you what you think it does: "We've shaken hands. My DNA will be on your hand. You may touch something outside of this room that I have never touched, and therefore my DNA will be somewhere where I have never been."
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And, although rare, mistakes can happen.
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In Swindon, a man with Parkinson's Disease was arrested and charged with a burglary in Bolton. He was frail and had never been there. But his DNA sample – it is claimed – matched one taken from the crime scene. Eventually the CPS admitted that he could not have done it.
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The Chair of the database, Chief Constable Tony Lake, says that having everyone on the database would help them to solve more crimes – but that winning public approval is key before it can become a reality.
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"We enjoy a very high degree of confidence by the public in policing in this country, and I think that we ... we tinker with that at our peril, and I think that if we can have the debate and we have the discussion and the vast majority of the public believe that that is genuinely in the interest of criminal justice, then that is clearly an important factor."
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Gill and Rob Smith from Chipping Sodbury are in favour of a universal database. In 1995 their 18-year-old daughter, Louise, went missing after visiting a nightclub with friends. Seven weeks later her body was found hidden in a local quarry. She had been raped and murdered.
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The police found the murderer's DNA at the scene. They then took samples of DNA from thousands of local men to find a DNA match, and the killer. It took 14 months to find him – and he was someone with a completely clean record.
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It was this case that led to a change in the law in England and Wales so that samples of the innocent could be kept, moving a step closer to a universal database.
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Rob Smith says that they were told that if there had been a more extensive database it would have taken a maximum of two weeks to identify her killer.
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Gill Smith believes everyone's DNA should be taken from birth: "I think going back years people would have been worried about birth certificates when they first came out, I think they would have been nervous about fingerprints when they came out and we're all used to it now. We just accept them now and I think DNA will be accepted too ... I think everybody yes from birth."
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However of those questioned for the ICM poll for Panorama 64% were against the idea of taking samples from newborn babies.
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Although those polled were in favour of having all adults on the database, there are plenty of experts who are worried.
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Last week the Nuffield Council on Bioethics said in its latest report that the database should be reduced in size. They said that it was "unjustified" to keep people on the DNA database who have not been convicted of any offence.
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They want the law in England and Wales to be brought in line with Scotland where only the DNA profiles of convicted criminals are kept. However, the poll suggests there would be public support for expanding the database.
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The programme also features the case of a man who was imprisoned for armed robbery but freed on appeal after it was concluded his DNA had actually been planted by a detective from the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad.
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Notes to Editors
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At present in England, Wales and Northern Ireland there are over four million DNA profiles on the database.
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Those arrested for a recordable offence (anything from drink driving to murder – normally one punishable by a prison sentence of any length) have to give their DNA sample for the database. Ìý
Even if they are innocent their DNA will still be kept. Victims and witnesses who have volunteered their DNA are also on the database.
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In Scotland the position is different. There, only the DNA samples of those found guilty of an offence may be retained.
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ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,006 adults aged 18 and over by telephone between 24 and 26 August 2007.
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Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults.
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ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
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Panorama: Give Us Your DNA, Monday 24 September 2007, 8.30pm, 91Èȱ¬ One
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