Do you approve of widening the police's ability to take DNA swabs?

Updated: 10:49AM Tuesday November 17, 2009

Police will have wider powers to take DNA samples, under a law passed by Parliament today in the face of strong opposition from the Green Party.

The provisions of the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill will be introduced in stages.

The first stage allows police to take samples from people charged with a range of serious offences, wider than the present category.

Do you approve of widening the police's ability to take DNA swabs?

Rodney (Howick)
Tuesday November 17, 2009 Telsh@r (United States of America) I think that you are missing the point. It goes like this. I've done nothing wrong, so you have no right to have my fingerprints or DNA. With your reasoning, why not microchip every person too. That way the authorities can see that they're not doing anything wrong. Sure it's OK for the authorities to know what I'm doing or where I am every second of the day. I'm OK because I've got nothing to hide. - Well no.

I can't agree with state control. If I've not done anything wrong, then the police have no right to keep my fingerprints or DNA.

Electa (MANUKAU CITY)
Monday November 16, 2009 Definitely!

Deal to Crims (Rotorua)
Monday November 16, 2009 Rachel and luvmydog
some common sense showing through at last.
But I also agree with Karen's suggestion to fingerprint and DNA at birth even though she was saying it in jest.
Would be good to know that my kids and future grandkids could be immediately eliminated as suspects, or if they do a crime, they deserve to get caught immedately.
But then, because they would have had sensible discipline from the start, they are unlikely to become lawbreakers.

luvmydog (Waikato/King Country)
Friday November 13, 2009 I agree with what Rachel (Wellington City) Think about it logically. If DNA is taken from spit, the body fluid itself wouldn't be stored & catalogued in a drawer at your local police station. It is lab tested & the resulting ID numbers of your DNA are filed. For DNA to be ID'd at the scene of a crime, they'd need to have actual body fluid at the scene of a crime, not mere ID numbers from a police file.

luvmydog (Waikato/King Country)
Friday November 13, 2009 Yes I do. The more evidence against criminals the better.

For any of you who imagine the police would manipulate your DNA? They can do that with changing your appearance on photo's or planting evidence.

Every profession has the potential to have insincere & corrupt people working within it, a shameful side to some people, but most people are conscientious & want justice for victims.

I personally want to see justice for all victims & happy for DNA to be checked. In any case I believe all DNA collected by police is later destroyed if the suspect is found innocent.

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