Police, justice and DNA records

I do not want the police or any other authority to have a copy of my DNA because quite simply, I do not trust them, or the criminal justice system.

Firstly, juries are made up of ordinary people, with no requirement that they should be educated, intelligent people. Told that the DNA found matches only 1 in 10 million of the population, a jury with a poor grasp of statistics could easily be persuaded that the evidence of guilt is overwhelming. But with a match to 1 in 10 million people's DNA profiles, that means that in the UK alone, there are likely to be 6 or 7 matches. If the defendant is only one of 7 possible DNA macthes, the evidence looks much less convincing. Which argument the jury is led towards depends too much on the skill of the barristers.

Secondly, hair and skin samples are pretty easy to come by, so there is excellent scope for misdirection by planting DNA. Police could do it themselves of course, and criminality and corruption are just as high in the police as in the rest of the population. If financial or career incentives are there, and they are, then some police are likely to fall victim to the temptation. But of course, there will also be a black market in stolen DNA if it is used regularly. Anyone who works in a hotel, gym, train, cinema, restaurant or any other public place will easily be able to get hold of any number of hairs and skin flakes. So could beauticians, doctors, hairdressers, and many other people who offer personal services. And of course any colleague at work can find hairs on your chair while you are out. DNA can often easily be linked easily to specific named persons, and by working with others who steal electronic identity data, it will become easier and easier to construct decoy evidence and frame a totally innocent person. Over-reliance on DNA will makes the threat worse.

If I want to escape conviction, I would make some serious effort to limit the amount of DNA I leave at the scene, while planting DNA belonging to a realistic suspect. I would do my research in advance to decide who would be the best decoy and do a good job of framing them by planting a range of ID based pointers to them, and making sure I leave DNA traces in the form of their hair and skin flakes, and maybe even a fingerprint or two for good measure. Faced with a naive legal system and a dumb jury, the wrong person would most likely be convicted while I walk free.

DNA listings can be marketed just like any other kind of personal record. Aside from criminal justice, DNA gives clues about many of my other attributes. A corrupt police officer might sell my listing to a variety of buyers, used for all kinds of personal, blackmail, insurance, advertising or legal purposes. No thanks!

In the far future, if I ever become rich and famous, someone might even use my listing to create a child, by assembling the appropriate genes off the shelf. Not so far away as you might think.

I will not feel confident about staying free in a future where too much weight is placed on DNA evidence, or even if the police have my DNA at all. It is only a matter of time before someone with a partial match commits a crime somewhere, and then my freedom is partially down to the competence of PC Plod, in which I don't have a lot of confidence. On the other hand, I travel a lot and my DNA is out there in many places, and I do have a lot of confidence in the collective skill and marketing of the hacking and criminal classes. Finally, I would not want to rely on the intelligence of a jury or the competence of a barrister to keep me out of prison once misplaced or misinterpreted DNA evidence is out there.

If the police and the justice system were perfect, I wouldn't have so much objection to them having my DNA, but they are a very long way from perfect, and I simply don't trust them to hold and use my records properly. I do not want the police to get hold of my DNA under any circumstances, as long as I can legally avoid it.