The DNA database and you
How big is it? How many get off it? Your questions answered...
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Special Report The National DNA Database (NDNAD) keeps growing: it now holds more than five million DNA profiles of individuals. Getting off the database, if you have been sampled by England or Wales forces, remain as unlikely as ever. And it remains difficult to make sense of the stats bandied at us, with the press quoting wildly differing figures. So we decided to investigate.
In August, the Daily Mail reported that "4.5 million genetic profiles [are] on record. Up to 1.5 million - or a third of these - are from innocent people".
In another article on the same day, the Mail reported "[t]he figure of 573,639 people on the database who have not been convicted, cautioned, formally warned or reprimanded has pushed the overall total to 4.2 million."
This is an extreme example of the difficulty of making sense of statistics concerning the NDNAD. Our first step was to find source data.
In May 2007 the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) started to administer the NDNAD. We'll use data obtained in a recent response to a Freedom of Information request to the NPIA to get some sense out of the data and figure out what are all the implied assumptions.
Data from the NPIA is authoritative, but the organisation's view of what is the NDNAD is a matter of opinion. The NPIA claims that "The NDNAD is not a criminal records database. It holds very little information about a subject's identity - only their name, date of birth, sex and ethnic appearance. Inclusion on the DNA database does not signify a criminal record, and there is no personal cost or disadvantage by being on it".
The National DNA Database Ethics Group and the Human Genetics Commission both consider the NDNAD to be a crime-related intelligence database. Recent findings suggest that composite statistics do not mask identity within genome-wide association studies and that DNA profiles previously considered anonymous and not containing genetic markers may reveal much more than was thought.
Often assumptions are made about the data; and these may not be the same for different sets of data. The NDNAD includes profiles of DNA samples taken by forces from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but often figures given in Parliament or in the press are only for samples taken by the England and Wales forces.
The NDNAD includes DNA profiles of the DNA samples taken from individuals and profiles of the DNA found at crime scenes. Here are figures up-to 2008-09-01.
| (At 2008-09-01) | England & Wales forces | Other forces |
| Total number of subject profiles | 4,969,225 | 327,088 |
| Estimated total number of individuals | 4,319,807 | 273,358 |
| Total number of crime scene profiles | 320,335 | 13,749 |
The subject profiles consist of both profiles of DNA samples taken from individuals following arrest for a recordable offence, known as criminal justice samples, and profiles of subjects who volunteered a DNA sample (whether those that do so are sufficiently informed before they give their consent is an issue that was raised during the presentation of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics; the NDNAD Ethics Group has been discussing the volunteer consent form for DNA sampling and accompanying information), for example, for elimination purpose.
Another source of confusion is that the number of subject profiles on the NDNAD is higher than the estimated number of individuals on it. This is often misrepresented. It happens because some of the profiles held are replicates. Multiple samples are taken from the same subject and profiled when on different occasions there's confusion concerning the person's name. Replication also happens when the police decide to resample an individual. The number of replications is estimated at around 13 per cent (it varies over time and between police forces).
Next page: Define innocent
COMMENTS
Low copy number DNA testing is what we should be scared of
I am on the database despite acquittal and like anyone else with "nothing to hide" I am fearful of the knock on the door thanks to the appallingly bad science used in the UK by the forensic science service.
It was only with the disclosure in the Omagh bombing case that a low copy number DNA sample was "unreliable" and that the police effectively cooked the evidence before anyone realised that this technique was so bad.
What is worse is that LCN DNA can give several positive responses yet the CPS whilst in theory should disclose those obviously do not. It was reported that the Omagh sample also matched a 14 year old boy as well whose DNA was on the database thanks to a CSA paternity query. If you have ever wondered the CPS get disclosure "wrong" in 25% of cases at the first round, and having spent 2 years fighting for disclosures of the evidence that proved I was innocent I would suggest that anyone who thinks we have a fair and reasonable justice system thinks again.
I trust the "nothing to hide" brigade will take a 30 year sentence on the chin for the greater good when they get fingered thanks to bad science and the corrupt actions of our nations justice system.
Re: What else is in there, besides ID info?
Profiles do not include details of the reason for arrest, this is the reason why the police can't apparently easily analyse the NDNAD in relation to the circumstances of arrest.
You can see a DNA profile at http://gizmonaut.net/images/kr_dna.jpg
(I've obscured the DNA markers' information. It was provided to me by Kevin Reynolds. See http://gizmonaut.net/blog/uk/dna_retention_of_unconvicted_people.html for more context)
Also from http://www.acpo.police.uk/asp/policies/Data/NDNAD_AR_04_05.pdf:
All subject sample records on The National DNA Database are uniquely identified by a bar code number (supplied with the sampling kits). In addition to the DNA profile, they also contain information about the subject’s name, date of birth, ethnic appearance and gender; information relating to the sampling force and the supplier laboratory to which the sample was submitted and details of the sample type and the test type. Records relating to samples taken under PACE also contain the Arrest Summons Number (ASN), which facilitates reconciliation of data with the Police National Computer (PNC). The type of offence for which the subject sample was taken is not recorded.
br -d
"there is no personal cost or disadvantage by being on it"
Actually I can think of 1 disadvantage
If they commit a crime they are more likely to be caught than the rest of society who are committing crimes but not on the database due to sheer luck.
I somehow don't think they would like that argument though. Nevertheless it is true, and certainly a personal disadvantage...heh
coalescence I'd be interested to know what a DNA SWAP is. That sounds even scarier than just having your DNA taken...
DNA is personal, and what right do the police have to store it when you haven't committed a crime? "Oh, you might one day" In that case, why don't they lock us all in our houses and put bars over the exits? After all, SOME of society will end up in jail. So we might as well fast-forward and take "preventative measures."
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