Dilemma over DNA database

WHAT should come first – civil liberties or the protection of the public? It is a dilemma that Tony Blair’s government could not resolve when it came to national security. Now the same conundrum threatens to create further splits in David Cameron’s fractious coalition if his administration presses ahead with plans to remove the DNA profiles of innocent people from a police national database.

This reform might be a key plank of the coalition agreement between the Tories and Liberal Democrats, but David Cameron appeared distinctly uncomfortable when Labour leader Ed Miliband had the foresight to raise this issue at Prime Minister’s Questions.

The problem, from Mr Cameron’s perspective, is that those championing civil liberties are the same people who also want a robust criminal justice system and his reforms have the potential to undermine the police at a critical juncture when people are still horrified by the failings that came to light during the Milly Dowler murder case, and the crimes committed by her evil killer Levi Bellfield.

Perhaps Mr Cameron, and his liberal colleagues, should consider the timely intervention of Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Talbot, one of Yorkshire’s most senior detectives.

Advances in the science surrounding DNA, he says, means that the police can solve some horrific murders and rapes that were committed decades ago – this technique offers little hiding place for criminals.

Crucially, he also points out that DNA has proved very effective in proving people innocent – a key point when put in the context of those past miscarriages of justice that shamed British policing and public confidence in the criminal justice system.

As the handling of the Dowler cases prompts much soul-searching, again, about the rights of victims, perhaps Ministers should consider this: what will they tell the family of a young girl who has been the victim of a shocking crime, and whose assailant escaped justice because their details had been prematurely removed from the DNA database?

A Home Office spokesman says by supposed way of reassurance: “We will ensure that those who have already broken the law can be traced if they reoffend.” Frankly, that is not good enough. By then, it will be too late.