The First Post.
As the inventor of DNA fingerprinting, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys might be expected to do what most scientists do these days, and talk up the wonders of his research at every opportunity. But he has always fretted about its potential for abuse - and now he fears his invention is undergoing 'mission creep'.
You can see his point. Since 2004 the police have had powers to take DNA from anyone arrested for any recordable offence, and keep it indefinitely, even if they are subsequently released. Even witnesses asked for DNA have no right to have it removed from the database once stored there.
In 2004, a woman fingered by DNA as a murderer proved to be a rape victim whose DNA had ended up on clothing in an Australian forensic lab.
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