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Dutch Police Ask 8000+ Citizens To Provide Their DNA

Posted by timothy on from the just-a-swab-between-the-cheek-and-gums dept.

sciencewatcher writes "In an attempt to solve a rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl, the Dutch police have asked 8080 men to provide their DNA. All these people lived 5 km or less from the crime scene at the time of the murder. This reopened cold case is the first large-scale attempt not to hunt the rapist and killer but to locate his close or distant male relatives. All data gathered will be destroyed after the match with this particular murder. There seems to be great public support for this attempt." Shades of The Blooding.

13 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. I see no problem here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's clearly for the children.

  2. Do you trust your government? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is what this boils down to. There is no "right" answer, but citizens of each country answer the question diferently.

    1. Re:Do you trust your government? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      When they tried this in Toronto a few years back it was accompanied by a lovely threat to publish the name of anyone who didn't cooperate.

    2. Re:Do you trust your government? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Shit man, I WISH they'd try something like that in Winnipeg. I'd be damn fucking PROUD to be published on a list of "those who didn't cater to the OBVIOUS overstepping of the authorities". I'd be tempted to ask if they wish me to wear a red armband as well to indicate I didn't take part in this.

      But in general, I'd ask they put my name front and goddamn center as one of the people who didn't take part.

    3. Re:Do you trust your government? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd be damn fucking PROUD to be published on a list of "those who didn't cater to the OBVIOUS overstepping of the authorities

      From an AC.

      Priceless.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    4. Re:Do you trust your government? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We don't all have the need to start an account on every site we read.

  3. Promise? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We'll destroy the DNA afterwards, we PROMISE...."

    1. Re:Promise? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah, we've seen and heard similar promises from both government and private entities before.

      "These automated license plate scanners won't store the data." "Okay this data may be useful to us, so we'll save it but not for more than three months." "Hey we've got all this great license plate data, organized by place and time - what will you pay for such useful information?"

      "We're not collecting Wi-Fi data." "Okay, yeah we are collecting it but we're not going to store the Wi-Fi payload info." "Okay, we did, you caught us, it was accidentally done, but we won't do it again." "Okay we didn't actually dump it the last time after we said we would, but we ARE now... promise!"

      If I were Dutch, I think I'd decline to participate.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  4. I'd do it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't generally like the idea of giving DNA samples to anyone. However, if the authorities are very direct and up-front about it, and provide me with a signed statement that the records will be destroyed after each sample is "cleared", then I'd do it in this case.

    I'll always trust the entity who asks for something over the entity which does the same thing in secret without permission.

    Even so, I sincerely doubt that this will lead to the perpetrator, for obvious reasons.

    1. Re:I'd do it. by leromarinvit · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If I were the killer, I would certainly not give my DNA. They probably expect this. Those who refuse will of course receive special attention.

      Well, I've never killed anyone and don't plan to, but I most certainly wouldn't give anyone my DNA unless forced to. If they want to force me, they have to treat me as a suspect, I have a right to legal counsel, etc. Why should I trust the police that they'll destroy everything afterwards? Wouldn't be the first time they lied.

      They have to do their homework, find suspects, and then get THEM to provide a DNA sample. Taking shortcuts and asking everybody to provide one "voluntarily" is not acceptable, because at some point it won't be voluntary any more. The fact that the proper procedures take a lot of work is an insurance policy against just treating everybody as a suspect just in case.

      --
      Proud member of the Ferengi Socialist Party.
    2. Re:I'd do it. by cbreak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If they would really look for relatives, then they would not limit themselves to male DNA sources. It should be obvious to anyone that a rapist can have female relatives just as well as male ones.

  5. Bad move by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a good article on the problems with fishing expeditions like this. Basically, the farther you cast the net, the greater the chance of false positives. What's worse, if there's just one false positive, it becomes next to impossible to argue your innocence because people look at the improbability of a single person being a false positive instead of the probability that there are false positives.

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  6. Bullshit ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I read this "All data gathered will be destroyed after the match with this particular murder" and immediately think bullshit.

    As a rule, once they have this, it never seem to go away.

    I would never submit to this unless I was required to -- this is a fishing expedition. Anybody who submits is probably innocent, and anybody who refuses is going to be treated as if they're guilty with something to hide.

    Yes, this is terrible. But asking everyone to submit exclusionary DNA because they've ran out of places to look ... well, I find that to be a really scary precedent.

    The next step of course would be to just simply have everyone's DNA on file just in case they ever needed it.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.