DNA debacle

What do you do with a collection of DNA so bloated with false or flawed information as to make it laughable? Why, you make it bigger, of course. At least that’s what U.K. law officials would like to do with their DNA database, despite the slight kerfuffle of finding that about one of every seven entries is erroneous or fraudulent in some way.

Housing some four million entries, the database is a compendium of suspects ranging from the hard-boiled killers to the softer-boiled innocents, along with 150,000 children under 16 who had been picked up by police at some point but not charged with anything. There are, however, some problems with the system: it seems not everyone arrested gives police their real name, and sometimes police enter data incorrectly. So while the police want to expand the list to include litterers, pooper-scooper shirkers and those not paying their fare on public transit, critics are wondering about the system’s merits. U.K. civil rights group Liberty, already leery of what it believes is a disproportionate number of minorities in the database, now also wonders, “How many Postman Pats and Donald Ducks have entries?”

A spokesperson for the Home Office assured the public that police are working to rid the database of inaccurate information.

by Scott Saxon