Criminal investigation and trial

Dr Carole McCartneyProject Manager and Lecturer in

Law, University of Leeds

Taking bioinformation

• Police can take bioinformation without consent from people arrested for recordable offences

• Our view: – this is proportionate to the aim

of detecting and prosecuting crime

– but the distinction between recordable and non-recordable offences is arbitrary and list should be reviewed

• Government is consulting on proposals to allow police to take bioinformation without consent from people arrested for ‘non-recordable’ offences

• Our view:– this is disproportionate to the

aims of identifying a person and confirming whether or not a person was at a crime scene

Taking bioinformation II

Retaining bioinformation• Currently, police can retain

indefinitely bioinformation from people arrested for recordable offences in England and Wales

• Government consulting on proposals to allow retention from all arrestees

• Our view:– bioinformation should only be

retained indefinitely for people convicted of a recordable offence, in line with Scotland

– Exceptions for serious violent or sexual offenders

An alternative focus…

We recommend:• Higher priority given to crime

scene analysis• Crime scene samples should be

retained indefinitely • More research on contribution of

bioinformation to criminal justice• Better collection of

statistics on forensic uses of bioinformation

The DNA Database: further recommendations

• Ethnic minorities: we welcome equality impact assessment

• Minors: should be a presumption in favour of removing children’s DNA from the Database unless there is a good reason not to

• Volunteers: should be able to remove DNA without giving reason

Population-wide DNA database?

• We are against a population-wide forensic DNA database:– hugely expensive – difficult to maintain– increased risk of function creep– unlikely to have much impact on

public safety– ‘potential offenders’ rather than

‘citizens’• The intrusion of privacy incurred

would not be outweighed by benefits to society

Trial

We recommend:• disclosure of all DNA and

fingerprint evidence to all parties in pre-trial stages

• clarification that fingerprint specialists are giving expert judgment

• minimum understanding of statistics for legal professionals

• information about capabilities and limitations of DNA evidence provided to members of the jury