100,000 Nottinghamshire residents held on police DNA database

10.48.15pm GMT Sun 17th Jan 2010

More than 100,000 innocent people have been added to the National DNA Database since the European Court of Human Rights ruled in December 2008 that the practice was illegal, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed. This is a similar figure to the 99,875 DNA records Nottinghamshire Police hold on local residents.

The figures, contained in Parliamentary answers, show:

487,340 profiles have been added to the database since the ruling

This includes 101,367 innocent people -a rate of 282 a day

In that same period, just 400 people have been successfully removed from the database.

For every innocent person that managed to have themselves removed from the DNA database under the 'exceptional case system' since the ECHR ruling, a further 253 innocent people have been added.

A breakdown by police force shows Nottinghamshire police have almost 100,000 DNA records. 20,774 of those are from innocent people.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, Jenny Willott said:

"It is appalling that the Government has taken the DNA of 100,000 innocent people since they were told the practice is illegal.

"By the time an innocent person manages to get their DNA removed from the database over 250 others will have been added.

"Despite the Government's promises to abide by the European Court's ruling, they are still doing everything they can to avoid it.

"Labour's cynical proposals will create a half-guilty class of people with their most intimate personal information held by the police for six years - even though they have done nothing wrong.

"This is a gross distortion of one of the fundamental principles of this country - that you are innocent until proven guilty."

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Ashfield and Eastwood, Jason Zadrozny said: "I am disgusted that Nottinghamshire Police are harvesting the data of five innocent local residents every single day.

"We are becoming a Police state. The force should be putting more effort into solving the wide local anti-social behaviour problems local residents face, and should get more bobbies back on the beat. Not be persecuting the innocent.