Gardai get new powers to collect DNA from bodies
Monday December 21 2009
GARDAI will be given new powers that will allow them to take samples from deceased people, irrespective of the cause of death, if they believe it will help a criminal investigation.
The development comes as a new DNA database -- sought by the garda authorities for more than a decade -- is finally being created for the force.
The database is seen as a key weapon in the fight against serious crime and high volume offences such as burglaries and thefts. The Government has now given the go-ahead for the publication of legislation, which will set up a comprehensive framework for taking samples from people for forensic testing.
Senior garda officers believe a proper database will significantly boost their detection rates and play a major role in solving criminal investigations.
It will also be used extensively for missing persons inquiries and to help identify injured people, who cannot identify themselves, and human remains. The new powers will also allow samples to be taken from deceased persons, irrespective of the cause of death, if gardai believe analysis of the sample and entering it into the database is likely to help a criminal investigation.
It is expected that a large bank of samples will be built up quickly. Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said the database will become a major source of high-quality intelligence that will be invaluable in tackling crime. Funding has also been set aside for building a new state of the art forensic science laboratory in a joint project with Dublin county council.
The existing laboratory at garda headquarters in the Phoenix Park is no longer adequate and the new building will be located at the state campus at Backweston, near Celbridge, Co Kildare. Convicted prisoners and suspects for crimes carrying a penalty of at least five years imprisonment may be subject to compulsory DNA sampling for the database.
Reasonable force will be allowed to take a sample if the target fails or refuses to co-operate, and gardai from the rank of sergeant upwards will have the power to authorise the taking of a sample to allow a DNA profile to be generated.
The profile will then be stored on a reference index and will be available for searches against all of the crime scene profiles already held on the database. Samples for forensic testing will include blood, urine, saliva, hair, nail (including material underneath), swabs from different parts of the body, skin and dental impressions.
Those taken for the purposes of the database will be non-intimate and either mouth swabs or plucked head hairs. Samples do not include fingerprints or palm prints, which are subject to separate legal measures.
The new legislation will also give special powers to the Garda Ombudsman Commission to take samples as part of its inquiries. Where intimate samples are required, they will be taken from suspects by medical professionals while prison officers will be able to take them from inmates.
Obstacles
Gardai will also have the power to target jailed offenders, who have completed their sentences but are not already on the database and continue to be of interest to the force. This category will include those convicted abroad but now resident here. A debate on the legal obstacles to a database has been ongoing since the 1990s and has been painfully slow in reaching a conclusion. The new bill was due to have been published earlier this year but was put on hold because of a judgment in the British courts. The Marper judgment meant that persons who are not convicted must be treated differently from offenders.
Safeguards are also built in to cover the retention of samples and profiles but it is proposed that DNA profiles taken from convicted sex offenders will be held indefinitely. Mr Ahern last night said he was conscious of concerns about the potential for misuse of a database and invasion of privacy. He welcomed the Marper judgment as a landmark decision. Mr Ahern will set up an independent oversight committee, which will have unrestricted access to the database and it will report annually to the Justice Minister. It will be chaired by a judge or former judge of the High Court or Circuit Court.
The unlawful disclosure of information from the database will carry a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment and a €50,000 fine.
- Tom Brady Security Editor
Irish Independent
