By Steven Bell

MOVES BY police in Scotland to retain DNA samples from people not convicted of a crime could lead to investigating officers “jumping to conclusions,” civil liberties campaigners said last night.

A senior Tayside Police officer last week called for standardisation of the Dundee-based national database with the law governing genetic profiles in England and Wales.

It has long been a tenet of the Scottish set-up that samples taken in the course of an inquiry are destroyed if there is no subsequent conviction.

Any change, said the Scottish Human Rights Centre, would “raise issues with regards to privacy, presumption of innocence and fair hearing.”

Director Rosemarie McIllwhan said, “At the moment, samples are destroyed, which protects people’s privacy, and it means that you are not likely to jump to the wrong conclusions.

“If you have got DNA on a database, then you are going to realise that the person has had some dealings with the police in the past. You might jump to the conclusion that this person has been involved in criminal acts previously, and that could be prejudicial.

“While it is an administrative burden on the police, and time consuming, it is disproportionate to retain samples after an investigation is concluded.

“It is a proportionality issue, and you have got to find the balance. It has also been proven that DNA and fingerprint evidence isn’t conclusive.”

It is expected that the SHRC will make representations on the issue if it is included in the Police Bill due to be brought before Parliament next year.

The organisation stated its opposition after Tayside’s deputy chief constable revealed that the Association of Chief Police Officers (Scotland) was seeking a change in the law.

Ian Gordon, the ACPOS spokesman on DNA, said retention of profiles in England and Wales had subsequently led to the detection of more than 6000 crimes, including 53 murders.

The human rights implications of keeping an innocent person’s DNA on a national database was brought before the House of Lords in the test case of Marper versus Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police in 2002.

The Lords ruled the practice was not a breach of human rights and the case is now being cited by ACPOS in support of its bid for new legislation in Scotland.