DNA databank 'will tackle crime'
2010-03-25 08:39
Grahamstown - The only way to tackle crime in South Africa is to compile a DNA database of everyone who is arrested, as well as of convicted criminals.
This is what Vanessa Lynch, founder of the DNA Project, said on Wednesday at Scifest Africa, six years after she founded the non-governmental organisation to help the police with forensic genetics.
She started the organisation about a year after the gruesome murder of her father. All the genetic evidence in the case was lost.
Blood, saliva
The DNA draft legislation, which has gone before Parliament's portfolio committee for police, states that DNA be collected from everyone who is arrested in the country - as well as from those who are already in prison - by means of a drop of blood or a saliva sample.
The draft legislation determines that the police can obtain the samples themselves. These will then eventually be connected to fingerprints.
When the police collect genetic material at a crime scene, it will be possible to compare it to the DNA of suspects, as well as that of everyone on the national database. This corresponds with what's happening elsewhere in the world.
Currently there are only 121 000 samples on the country's database (compared to the four million samples on the British database) and there is no legislation to regulate it properly.
Reliable
Lynch said it is almost impossible for a criminal not to leave DNA at a crime scene, and if samples are collected at every scene, it would have a huge impact on crime and justice in our country.
"DNA places the criminal at the scene for ever. It's much more reliable than any other form of evidence," she said.
Besides these benefits, the DNA collected when someone is arrested can immediately rule out another suspect. As a result people won't have to spend a long time awaiting trial.
It can also prove an alibi and significantly shorten trials, she said.
People in Britain plead guilty in 82% of cases where they're confronted with DNA evidence.