Almost one in 10 people on Merseyside has their genetic profile stored on the national DNA database, according to information released to the Daily Post under the Freedom of Information Act. The figures show that there are more than 200,000 profiles of people in Merseyside and Cheshire – many of whom have never been convicted of any crime – on the controversial database.

Source: Liverpool Daily Post

Police in the Midlands have spent four days searching for a computer memory stick said to contain top-secret information on terror suspects. The black 4GB stick was lost after being taken out of Castle Vale police station by an officer on patrol last Thursday. … Senior officers spent the weekend co-ordinating efforts to find it and it is understood that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has already been informed

Source: Spy Blog

The Chief Constable of Scotland’s largest police force, Strathclyde, is calling for all Scots to be put on the DNA database.

Source: The Register

A “Citizens’ Inquiry” into the Forensic Use of DNA and National DNA Database is calling for proper public debate into the issues raised by the database, education of the public about their rights and an independent body to oversee the development of the database.

Source: The Register

DNA profiles of those not convicted of a crime should be removed from the database in England and Wales, a government-funded inquiry has said.

Source: BBC

The National Police Improvement Agency has defended allowing companies access to the national DNA database. A spokesperson for the NPIA told GC News that there are “stringent guidelines” surrounding each request for profiles from the National DNA Database, including scrutiny by a newly formed ethics board.

Source: Kable

Millions of profiles on the national DNA database have been handed over secretly to private companies without the consent of those involved…

Source: The Telegraph.

Five police forces have been ordered to delete old criminal convictions from the Police National Computer. In dismissing appeals by Humberside, Northumbria, Staffordshire, Greater Manchester and West Midlands Police, the Information Tribunal has today upheld the view of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) that the retention of the old convictions data is in breach of the Data Protection Act.

Source: ICO press release (PDF)

A discovery leads to questions about whether the odds of people sharing genetic profiles are sometimes higher than portrayed. Calling the finding meaningless, the FBI has sought to block such inquiry.

Source: LA Times
Hat tip: David, writing on the ORG-discuss mailing list.

Quoth the Evening Standard:

In the last year [longtime bus enthusiast Rob McCaffrey] has been questioned twice by the police and had to give all his personal details after people who saw him innocently snapping buses on public roads reported him.

Murder, rape and child abuse investigations will be hampered if a European court rules that more than 500,000 DNA samples should be removed from Britain’s National DNA Database, a senior police chief has told The Times.

The policeman in question is the outgoing Chief Constable of Lincolnshire, Tony Lake, formerly the chairman of the National DNA Database.