Murder cop: take babies' DNA

By MIKE SULLIVAN
The Sun Online
Dec. 11, 2006

BRITAIN’S most senior murder investigator has called for DNA to be taken from babies.

Commander Dave Johnston said it would build up a database to SOLVE crimes and PREVENT others.

He said samples could also be taken from Britons renewing passports and from migrants arriving here. The head of the Met Police’s Homicide and Serious Crime Unit, went on: “We have 300,000 unsolved cases where we have taken a profile at a crime scene but have not yet matched it.

“As well as solving crime, it would really make someone think twice about committing crime if they knew their DNA was on a database.

“There is also a compelling case for taking DNA from people when they die, so that we can cleanse the database.”

There are already three million profiles — covering six per cent of the population — on the National DNA Database, set up in 1999.

Currently saliva samples are taken only from those arrested and cost Ł47 to put on the database.

Yet “heel prick” blood samples are already taken from babies at four days old to test for genetic diseases and could be used at little extra cost.

Cdr Johnston — Vice Chair of the Association of Chief Police Officers’ homicide working group — stressed his was a personal view. He added: “There are a lot of issues around this, including human rights issues. That’s the debate I want.”