El Reg has noted that despite the constant growth of the criminal DNA database, help in convictions has actually dropped slightly.
In 2000/2001, the database contained ~1.2 million people’s data, and had an effectiveness of about 0.29% in solving crimes.
Since then, the database has ballooned to hold 4.7 million, and its effectiveness has risen slightly to 0.36%, down from 0.37% last year, despite the addition of around half a million new records.
It just goes to show that despite having a massive database of biometric information, the effectiveness of the database to assist in solving crimes isn’t all that impressive, and also probably contains the records of a truckload of innocent people who just happen to have been arrested for whatever reason. I would love to see more relevant and detailed statistics on the database, relating to the amount of crimes that rest primarily on biometric evidence etc.
It’s sad that despite the great cost and concerted effort, many innocent people will be caught up in it.