Australian Police are using advanced DNA investigative techniques to identify people, with no new legislation to regulate it’s use despite growing privacy concerns.
Traditionally, DNA databases are used by the police to directly match a sample with one from a crime scene or unidentified remains.
But a technique called familial searching is being used to identify people who are not in the database.
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Familial searching is the ability to identify people based on familial links.
In some cases, the police have used a warrant to access consumer databases like Ancestry.com and GEDMatch. This can lead police to identify a suspect, because someone in their family has submitted DNA to see their family tree.
This casts the net a lot wider and can link people to an investigation for no other reason than who they’re related to.
Why should innocent people care who has their DNA?
Criminal lawyer Felix Ralph is concerned about the privacy implications and compares this new technique to age old morality found in the Bible.
“The son should not be blamed for the sins of the father. What we’re talking about is people being potentially subject to an extraordinarily stressful investigation based on their genetic interrelatedness.”
This is exactly what happened to Louisiana filmmaker Michael Usry. Michael was a suspect in a rape and murder which happened 3000 km away. He spoke to LiSTNR’s Should I Spit? podcast.
“My dad had submitted a DNA sample through the LDS Church, and it eventually led to me becoming a suspect in a murder,” Michael said.
In Should I Spit?, journalist Claire Aird follows this DNA sample to discover who took it, for what reason, and how it was used.
How will DNA be used in future?
Felix Ralph fears that as DNA processing gets cheaper and faster, there’s nothing to stop what he calls “function creep”.
“I have no doubt that eventually the police will be able to put the swab into your phone, search the database, and come up with a match.”
Felix says there’s a role for familial searching in serious criminal investigations but only when all other avenues have been exhausted.
“I always use the example of little Billy committing a shop theft or a bicycle theft. Should we be allowing it for that? Should it be a routine thing?”
Article by | Greg Muller, Holly Mitchell and Jade Murray
Subscribe to Secrets We Keep. In the latest season, investigative journalist Claire Aired unveils the origin story of the multibillion dollar consumer DNA industry. From ancestry companies, to murder cases, to one of the world’s wealthiest churches – everyone seems to want a piece of what makes you, you: