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NETWORK NEWS COLUMN: MP Diane Abbott

The Dangers of DNA Databasing

Young Black men are disproportionately represented on the DNA database. Diane Abbott MP highlights the dangers and discrimination behind the current legislation

Young Black men are disproportionately represented on the DNA database by a long way.

Whilst clear figures are difficult to come by, estimates suggest something like 50 – 77% of the entire population of 16 – 35 year old black men have their profiles on the database.

The discriminatory element of the DNA database was really driven home to me during an advice surgery I held in conjunction with Liberty in Hackney. With quite minimal advertising (there was no budget to hold the surgery) we were inundated with constituents who had their DNA on the database and wanted it removed. The surgery was overwhelmingly filled with young Black men and a few young Black women accompanied by their concerned parents. These young people had been stopped by police, and sometimes arrested, time and time again but never been cautioned or charged. They were being stopped effectively because they are young and Black.

The DNA database has been around for almost fifteen years but has always been dealt with bit by bit within wider pieces of legislation. MPs have not had the opportunity to debate the issues surrounding the database as a whole. That is part of the reason I held a debate in Parliament in December. Not surprisingly MPs from all sides of the political spectrum turned up to argue their case against the database. What is more surprising is that almost all of us agreed with each other. Holding the DNA profiles of innocent people is just plain wrong.

I believe the database creates semi-innocent people. In my mind, and indeed in the eyes of the law, you are either guilty or you are innocent. But hundreds of thousands of people who have never been convicted of a crime have their DNA profiles retained on the database for no reason other than that the police have arrested them at some point. That is bad enough as it is. But when you add in the fact that there is no transparent or easy way to get your DNA removed from the database; and that you are more likely to be arrested by police if you belong to a certain race or age group it is devastating.

It is easy for the Home Office, and for others of us who are lucky enough not to be in those groups that are often marginalised and criminalised, to gush about the crime-fighting benefits of the DNA database. But as the inventor of DNA fingerprinting technology, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys has said, putting hundreds of thousands of random samples on the database would have the same crime-fighting benefits as keeping the DNA of innocent people on the database. Once proven innocent of the crime you were arrested for you go back to being part of the non-criminal population. It is unfair, disproportionate and unprincipled to have it any other way.