A human rights watchdog has slammed the Association of Chief
Police Officers (Acpo) for advising chief constables to continue
adding DNA profiles of innocent people to the national DNA
database.
This guidance does not meet the requirement set by the European
Court of Human Rights for clear and justifiable reasons for keeping
the DNA data of innocent people, the
Equality and Human
Rights Commission, said in a statement.
The commission has asked the government to issue interim
guidance to police forces in England and Wales that complies with
the European court's requirement.
"The government has so far refused to do this and Acpo has
advised chief constables to continue to apply existing retention
policy pending new guidance from the Home Office, expected to be
available in 2010," the commission said.
John Wadham, group director legal at the commission, said the
government should take the opportunity to clarify the situation now
and avert future costly and time consuming legal action.
The commission has made
several recommendations to government on how to bring UK DNA
database in line with European law.
The commission has also called for an independent adjudicator to
give innocent people a way of challenging the need to keep their
DNA profile on record.