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UK Police Promise Not To Retain DNA Data, But Do Anyway

Posted by kdawson on from the most-private-thing dept.

redalien writes "In 2008 I invited two policemen into my home and voluntarily gave them a DNA and fingerprint sample to help with a murder investigation, as they'd promised it would only be used for that investigation. I was never under any suspicion and could just as easily have said no. Almost a year after the investigation closed they have now confirmed that they've retained my samples and at my request have begun an investigation to see if there are sufficient 'exceptional circumstances' to remove them. I'm not the only one who was told samples would be removed, so if you've had such a promise from the police I recommend contacting their data protection registrar immediately."

8 of 372 comments (clear)

  1. Not the first by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This isn't the first time the police have lied.

    1. Re:Not the first by Cassini2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Police are allowed to participate in a ruse to gain the trust of a suspect.

      Make no mistake. You were a suspect in a murder case, until cleared. In a police investigation, everyone is a potential suspect. As such, be careful what you volunteer, because until proven otherwise, you are a suspect and can be lied to.

  2. You believed them when the promised? by nedlohs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously?

    1. Re:You believed them when the promised? by internewt · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seriously?

      That was exactly the kind of thing I thought!

      Unfortunately the police, with the help of politicians, have thrown away any respect I may have once had for them. If the police came to my house, doing door to door enquiries, then I would not talk to them at all, and I most definitely would not invite them into my home.

      The police have become servants of themselves, through the target systems that exist to gauge their performance. They do not respect the communities they police any more, and I think most police would actually laugh at you if you told them they are pubic servants.

      ACAB.

      At this point, if you are nasty fucking pig or a pig apologist, you set the box below to troll, overrated, offtopic, flamebait, or redundant.

      --
      Car analogies break down.
  3. Re:Hairdressers by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you're not in the database then you won't need to fear a planted sample either. Not being in the database reduces your risk both from false positive and from planted sample ... being in the database is a pure lose/lose situation.

  4. Re:WAIVE NOTHING..EVER..EVER!! by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bullshit. You just make it harder for them to do their job.

    The only time the police have an easy job is in a police state.

    If you're not a criminal, victim or witness then you have no reason to talk to the police about a crime, and if you are a criminal then you have no reason to talk to the police without a lawyer. So there are very, very few cases where talking to the police is actually beneficial, and many where it's going to get you in a world of hurt... even police themselves will admit that.

    Remember, these are the people who recently shot an innocent guy in the head eight times for 'suspicion of looking a bit muslim' and walked away with no consequences. Britain is rapidly approaching a police state if it isn't already there, which is precisely why I left a couple of years ago.

  5. Don't give a Sample by missileman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How the hell could it "help with a murder investigation" to provide them with a sample of your DNA?

    Presuming you are innocent, you are simply opening yourself up to a false positive match, either now or in sometime in the future.

    You have everything to lose, and nothing whatsoever to gain.

    In the case of a degraded DNA sample, it's possible to have the statical odds of you being a match for a sample in the range of 100,000 to 1. That doesn't seem so bad unless you consider that there might be 1,000,000 records on file. Statistically that's 10 database hits, and if you are the lucky one cold hit, combined with the apparent belief that juries find scientific evidence infallible, you could easily be convicted. It *has* happened before that the only evidence that links a suspect to a crime is a cold database hit.

    Just don't give them a sample without a court order, ever.

     

  6. Don't Talk To The Police by rhook · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, nothing good ever comes from talking to the police or giving them anything that they don't have a warrant or court order for. Police are also allowed to lie, however if you lie to them you're guilty of a crime.