Police hold DNA of three in four young black men
The police DNA database will soon have the profiles of three-quarters of Britain's young black men, it emerged yesterday.
Race equality chiefs responded to the revelation by opening an investigation into whether ethnic minorities are being disproportionately targeted by officers.
The genetic profiles of suspects arrested by police stay on the database for life - even if no charges are ever brought against them.
Latest figures suggest that 135,000 black men aged between 15 and 34 will be on the system by spring. That is equivalent to 77 per cent of the young black population of England and Wales.
In contrast, only 22 per cent of young white males and 6 per cent of the general population will be logged.
Trevor Phillips, chairman of the
Commission for Racial Equality, said the body would investigate whether the disparity was a breach of race relations laws.
'This is tantamount to criminalising a generation of young black men,' he insisted. 'Stopandsearch statistics suggest that black males are more likely to be stopped simply because they are young black males.
'The database figure is just perpetuating this stereotype and does nothing to instil confidence in a measure that seeks to serve all members of our community.
'It is provocative, unfair, unjust and will do little to reduce crime.
It would be fairer to have a database that restricts itself to storing the DNA profiles of those who are convicted rather than this fast and loose approach, which opens up the potential for discrimination.'
The figures were obtained from the Home Office by Tory MP Bob Spink. Researchers told him that by next April the database will hold the DNA samples of 3.7million people. These include three million ' whiteskinned Europeans' and nearly 260,000 'Afro-Caribbeans'.
Senior police chiefs maintain that the database reflects the fact that, in some parts of the country, young black men are more likely to be involved in crime than whites and Asians.
The race commission said the real problem was that the database held information on innocent citizens.
Britain's DNA database is the biggest in the world and holds the genetic profiles of 750,000 children.
Also on it are the records of at least 340,000 people arrested and later cleared of any wrongdoing. A further 20,000 people, who voluntarily gave samples of DNA to help police carrying out manhunts, are also on the database.
Last week one of the world's DNA pioneers, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, warned that the system discriminated against the innocent.
And Tony Lake, who speaks on DNA issues for the Association of Chief Police Officers, has raised doubts about keeping the profiles of crime victims and witnesses.
Mr Lake, who is otherwise a staunch defender of the database, said he was 'personally uncomfortable' with this policy.
Last month, however, Tony Blair suggested he could accept the idea of a system that held the DNA of every member of the population.
