Public at ‘serious risk’ after cops halve DNA and fingerprints taken from suspects
PUBLIC safety is at “serious risk” because police have stopped taking DNA and fingerprints from suspects, a watchdog has warned.
Dangerous offenders including those accused of rape could be at large because their records were not added when they were first quizzed.
The Biometrics Commissioner’s annual report published yesterday found the number of DNA profiles being added to the national database has halved in the past decade, from 540,100 in 2009-10 to 256,422 last year.
Only 22 were from suspects who voluntarily attended police stations for interview
In some rural areas, cops use ink pads to take dabs because there are no modern scanners.
Commissioner Paul Wiles said the threat to detectives’ use of forensic evidence is a “seemingly unintended consequence” of budget cuts and legal restrictions on when officers can make arrests.
A separate database holds 8.2million records of suspects’ fingerprints, up slightly on the 7.9million recorded two years earlier. Police also keep samples taken from scenes of unsolved crimes – but these will too “decline in value” if fewer suspects’ details can be checked against them”.
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Mr Wiles said: “We have heard of cases in which a suspect had come to previous police notice for a minor offence and been dealt with as a voluntary attendance, with no biometrics taken.”
And he raised concerns that suspects accused of historic sex attacks are not being arrested, meaning their fingerprints and DNA are not being checked against records.
The restrictions on arrest were introduced when Theresa May was Home Secretary in 2012 and mean that officers must decide if it is “practicable” to invite the suspect for a voluntary interview instead.
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