National DNA database vital for effective law enforcement

GARDAI are often asked to fight crime with one hand tied behind their backs.

Nowhere is this more illustrated than by the fact that we still do not have a national criminal DNA database.

The criminal has been dealt many advantages by modern developments. Transformations in technology, greater mobility and falling borders have opened a world of opportunity for those who want to commit crimes and get away with it.

The development of DNA profiling is the one significant modern development which gives the police forces of the world the upper hand. The fact that a person's identity can be authenticated by an examination of that individual's genetic traits has revolutionised crime detection. Unfortunately, our police force is still waiting to get the chance to exploit the potential of this tool.

If criminal investigators find DNA traces at a crime scene and can then match them with the DNA profile of an individual, they have near absolute evidence locating that person at the scene of the offence. The difficulty, of course, is that police must have DNA samples to compare with those obtained from the scene.

So far, gardaí have been confined to using DNA in a very restrictive way in the absence of a national criminal database they must rely on the goodwill of crime suspects or of a collection of persons in a defined area, to consent to giving DNA samples. DNA has assisted in the detection of about 700 different offences, often where the case would not otherwise have been solved but that is only a fraction of its potential.

The most high profile and perhaps the most significant use of DNA in Ireland was in the investigation into the killing of Marilyn Rynn.

That crime was solved because the person subsequently charged and convicted of her murder agreed to voluntarily provide a DNA sample because he assumed that due to the passage of time it would not be possible to take samples from his victim's body.

In contrast, there has been a compulsory system of DNA sampling of criminals in force in Britain, and a national database of those samples, for nearly 10 years. Every person convicted of all except relatively minor offences in Britain must provide a DNA sample.

Last Saturday, in Dublin, a conference of prosecutors was treated to a fascinating talk about the Scottish experience with a criminal database from Martin Fairley, head of the DNA section of Strathclyde Police.

In the last two-and-a-half years, almost 7,500 samples gathered from crime investigations in Scotland have been loaded onto the database to search for matches and almost 5,000 of them have come up with a result. A stunning 60%-plus of the samples uploaded matched a sample already on the database. This has led to the solving of thousands of crimes.

The real advantage of the Scottish database has been in what are called "cold searches", which involve the comparing of DNA evidence from a crime scene not only with the DNA profiles of persons otherwise suspected of participation in that particular crime but also with profiles of all persons previously or later convicted of any offence in Scotland, and, if necessary, in England and Wales too.

Ten murders in Scotland have been solved by this random trawl of the profiles on the database. Fawley told of one story where a young woman took a lift from a bogus taxi and was raped by two men. Two years later, a man who had been arrested locally for a minor offence was found to match the sample from the rape scene and he is now serving an eight-year prison sentence.

THE most obvious application of DNA analysis is in the investigation of assault and sexual offences but the technique has proved equally as valuable in less serious but more frequent crimes like burglary, vandalism or car theft.

It's amazing what they can get DNA samples off of at a crime scene. A surprising amount of burglars cut themselves on glass when breaking windows. A lot of them also get hungry as they work and leave traces on soft drink or bear cans or even on half-eaten bananas. In drugs cases, useful samples have been found inside gloves or packaging left in "drug factories".

In armed robberies, DNA samples have been taken from discarded masks, chewing gum or cigarette butts.

Terrorists have also been identified from DNA samples left on explosives which are intercepted before detonations.

We have slowly been getting our act together on this one here in Ireland.

Issues surrounding the creation of a DNA databank were referred to the Law Reform Commission, which published a consultation paper on the issue in March 2004.

Its preliminary recommendation was that there should be a limited national database which would include the profiles of all persons who are convicted of an offence for which they are sent to prison.

Some feel that this is too restricted.

As reported in this paper on Monday, the Director of Public Prosecution, James Hamilton, called at Saturday's conference for samples to be required from all persons convicted of relatively serious offences, irrespective of whether they are sent to prison.

Since many of those convicted, especially of first-time offences, are not given custodial sentences, their inclusion makes sense and would be closer to the situation in Britain.

There are some legitimate concerns about the use of such a database and the Law Reform Commission has suggested wise protections. Others, however, have been less rational in their proposals.

For example, nothing better illustrates the extent to which some groups live in an alternative universe when it comes to the need to fight crime that the content of the Position Paper which the Irish Council for Civil Liberties produced on this topic.

Although recognising the obvious benefits of DNA in crime investigation, they argue that DNA evidence from a crime scene should be compared only to the DNA profile of suspects in that crime. However, as the Scottish experience shows, it is the comparison with the DNA profiles of a wider pool of persons, and in particular of all convicted criminals, which delivers real results.

The Government has promised the introduction of a national DNA database and the Minister for Justice has already put some of the legislative and logistical preparations for its establishment in train. The Law Reform's final report on the issue is due to be published in September. One aspect in which its view will be significant will be on the issue of the retention of DNA samples provided by persons during the course of an investigation who are not subsequently charged or convicted.

However, once that report is published there should be no further delay.

We are already well behind much of Europe on this.

By helping to convict or rule out a suspect at an early stage, a DNA database would save valuable police and other crime detection resources, leaving them free for other investigations or to be deployed towards more crime prevention.

Why should criminals be the only ones to benefit from advances in science and technology?