Police DNA Profiling and Privacy

DNA technology has been beneficial in many fields of human society. The use of DNA in crime investigation has helped police departments for a number of years. From the unheard of to celebrated cases, identifying criminals through their DNA has made police officers’ work a lot easier. There is a recent privacy concern involving DNA profile collection. The police have cited privacy concerns about the move by officials to maintain a database of their officers’ own DNA.

Police officials have ordered the DNA testing of law enforcement personnel to rule out speculations that a police officer committed a sophisticated crime. The background of this unpopular order was the death of eight women in Louisiana in 2009. These deaths were labeled as serial killings, and the rumors spread when investigations showed the high degree of “workmanship” of the criminal. This resulted in all police officers in Louisiana agreeing to undergo testing. It finally turned out that the killer was not one of them.

To some officers, DNA collection is not something that could put their privacy at risk. They say that having a DNA file of police officers will save much time in conducting crime scene investigations as it would be easier to identify unknown genetic materials found at the scenes.

However, others feel that handing over DNA should not be done as easy as that. There are a lot of privacy concerns that should be clarified before officers give in to DNA testing. Those who are not sold on the idea say that there have to be safeguards put into place. It should be made clear to the DNA owner what would happen to it, making sure that it is treated with the utmost care.

Police unions have also issued their stand regarding this matter. The union officials have reminded their members about the possible consequences of allowing their DNA to be profiled. They said that there are yet no restrictions as to the storage of the DNA, so there is a high possibility of misuse and privacy problems.

In other parts of the world, countries like the United Kingdom and Australia have been maintaining DNA files of their officers for several years. It was the U.K. government that started such a system of keeping a database of criminal suspects way back in 1995. This same system was adopted by the U.S., which is believed to have the world’s largest DNA database of criminals today.

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