Last year, I asked a simple question on X: ‘Should all police officers have their DNA retained on a database?’
The response I got was huge. I amassed 1,200 reposts and 1,500 replies – though not all of them were kind. In fact, I was inundated with abuse.
So many people told me that this was already the case, that it was a given, that I was ‘moronic’ for not knowing it was already done. I even had my tweet community noted for context.
But it turns out my question wasn’t as stupid as these trolls made it seem, as it’s been reported by the Evening Standard that around half of the Metropolitan Police’s 33,000 officers could be missing from its own DNA and fingerprint databases. That’s extremely worrying.
All officers are required to provide their DNA and a scan of fingerprints. This is done for multiple reasons with the main one being for crime scene elimination purposes.
When an officer attends a scene of a crime, they may inadvertently contaminate it. Having their DNA on file is a simple way to eliminate them.
We know most police officers in this country are good people – I have worked with many amazing officers in Brent – they are dedicated, hard-working, and run towards danger while the rest of us run away.
So I personally find it hard to believe that these officers wouldn’t fight to have their DNA on file for this reason alone. Surely it can only aid their investigative work?
However, the sad reality is there have been too many high-profile cases of police misconduct in recent years. Last year it was reported that it had ‘hit a record high’, with a quarter of offences being sexual.
There were the two police officers who were jailed for taking and sharing vile photos of the bodies of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman. Also David Carrick, who was jailed for life after he raped and assaulted a dozen women.
And perhaps most notably, there was the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens.
All these incidents have seriously eroded public faith and confidence in the police service – especially here in London. But if we are going to rebuild that trust within the police service, it requires serious action.
Some like to say that there are ‘rotten apples’ in the police service, but the culture problem runs deeper than that. That’s why I’ve long argued that it’s essential that all serving police officers have their DNA profiles retained on police databases for accountability and transparency.
Frankly, that it is thought as many as 16,600 current serving officers’ DNA samples and 19,100 fingerprints might not be on the force’s systems – as reported by the Evening Standard – is simply appalling.
Mitigating factors, such as that it takes time to get the data from new joiners, and also that officers often transfer between forces, are often cited but I do not accept these excuses.
As the Chair of the London Parliamentary Labour Party – the largest regional group in Government – and MP for Brent East, I have a responsibility to hold the Met to account. That’s why I shared this news with my followers across all my social media accounts last week.
It’s clear to me that these issues have been known for a long time, and could have been overcome with a proper strategy. If it was done in a systematic way it would have been completed by now. Instead, it’s been allowed to fall by the wayside.
What I find even more infuriating is that, at the same time, the police are able to keep the DNA of people who were arrested but not charged for a crime for three years.
I have raised this several times with the Met: If they are able to store DNA from innocent civilians, then surely they must be able to collect from their officers?
In fact, I wrote to the Met one year ago on this very issue to express my concern and urge them to take DNA from all serving officers. I was then assured that the majority of officers were on the database and that they aimed to have the remaining officers on the system within 12 months.
One year on and it seems that I have been let down.
While I could not have imagined that almost half of serving officers could be missing, I can’t help but feel misled. And I also question why this 12-month target was so badly missed?
In order to find out, I have once again written to the Met Police for an assessment on the numbers. This time though, I am looking for serious reassurances that they take this issue as seriously as me and other London MPs and that it will be urgently rectified.
Scotland Yard bosses are reportedly planning a multimillion-pound 12-month project to retake that missing data. While I am not exactly sure why it would cost that much, I expect this to be done and will monitor it closely.
But it’s not just in London that we need to see this change. I also want to see the same rules apply to every police service across England and Wales.
Not only will this signal that police vetting standards are of a high standard and help deter those who are mentally and morally unfit to be police officers, but I believe it can help weed out some of the bad eggs we know already exist in the service who abuse their positions.
More widely, I have called for comprehensive and mandatory re-vetting of every single serving police officer, accompanied by a pay rise. Police officers do an important job and they should be properly remunerated.
But before any of that can happen, the Met must fix the problem of missing police DNA profiles. It is the essential and simple first step to help restore trust in our police service.
It can’t wait any longer – and I’m going to make sure it doesn’t.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
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