Watch Live: CityNews at Six Vancouver

Washington call to take DNA samples on arrest worries BCCLA

By

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – There are calls for Washington State to bring in DNA samples of people as soon as they are arrested. The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) thinks it could affect innocent people, like you.

Imagine taking a trip across the border and you run into problems with police. Just like that, you could have your DNA entered in a database, indefinitely – even if you haven’t been convicted of a crime.

Micheal Vonn with the BCCLA explains in some places, like the UK, you don’t even have to be arrested.

“They take DNA from virtually everybody, including people who are cautioned and they have not increased their clearance rate for crime one iota by having 1.5 million innocent people on their database,” Vonn says.

She doesn’t think this is coming to Canada just yet, hoping as long as the evidence shows it is ineffective, lawmakers will agree.

“Nothing about having all these innocent people on a database increases the clearance rate for crime, however much you might point to one cherry-picked case over here as being somehow the stand-in for actual policy.”

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today