On Monday (12 Sep), the Registration of Criminals (Amendment) Bill was passed, and it allows the Singapore Police Force to collect DNA from more suspects and offenders.
In simpler terms, the scope of crimes whereby DNA collection is allowed has broadened.
What Other Crimes Have Been Included?
The old bill for the DNA registration of criminals is straight-forward.
Reprehensible crimes like murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, and criminal intimidation are part of the list.
With the new amendments, more crimes have become “eligible” for DNA collection, such as voluntarily causing hurt, obstructing public servants in their discharge of service, reproducing obscene films or unlawful stalking.
Well, there are a whole bunch of perpetrators from the recent string of knife incidents who will be added to the database, as well as Dee Kosh and anti-vaxxer Iris Koh.
Why Is DNA Collection Necessary?
Anyone who has read, listened, or watched crime-related content will know the importance of DNA as circumstantial evidence in criminal proceedings.
Just like any kind of data, there is a need for a database before any comparisons or extrapolations can be made, and it is always best to have more data for accuracy’s sake.
During the Parliament debate, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling cited that one in three individuals convicted of a registrable crime between 2017 and 2021 had been found guilty of non-registrable crimes.
What this signifies is that the misdemeanours of one in three people tend to become more severe.
Perhaps an offender started with petty theft and gradually escalated to robbery, or assault and battery, which then becomes a registrable crime.
Therefore, if the police are able to collect the DNA identifying information from these individuals, they would be able to identify them more quickly should they reoffend and commit a registrable crime.
The build-up of the database will also give authorities more samples to compare with.
In circumstances where there is a lack of CCTV or eyewitnesses, DNA sampling becomes all the more crucial in proving or disproving an accused’s testimony.
Can You Choose Not To Give Your DNA?
If you are accused of a registerable crime?
No, you don’t really have a choice.
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One of the amendments states that it is an offence for someone arrested to refuse to give his blood sample for DNA without good cause.
The court could also use this fact against him during the proceedings.
Honestly, just treat it as standard procedure during an investigation; just like how the police takes your fingerprint and photograph for identification, the same applies for your DNA.
Individuals who contravene the law will be penalised, and they could serve a jail term of up to a month, fined up to S$1,000, or both.
While the DNA collection may feel “traumatic” or “intrusive”, the police have the agency to decide to use reasonable force to extract the DNA samples, though it is also dependent on the circumstances of the case.
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But let’s be serious here, if we can stand doctors and medical professionals shoving a cotton swab into our nose for antigen rapid tests, a cotton swab in the mouth does not count for much, especially when we can do it on our own.
On the flip side, if you wish to provide your DNA voluntarily to the police, you may do so, now that the Bill has passed.
Don’t know why anyone would do that, but yes, you can give your DNA to the police for free, even if you’re not under suspicion or being investigated.
DNA Database
The DNA samples will be stored in a database owned by the police and run by the Health Science Authority (HSA).
Police can use the DNA database to check whether the DNA recovered from the crime scene matches someone in the system.
DNA evidence from previous crime scenes, regardless of its recency, its solved status, or from a cold case, will be stored in the database.
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The new Bill will also allow police to share the DNA of persons convicted of a registrable crime with foreign law enforcement agencies, if they deem it necessary for investigations.
This will go a long way in strengthening international cooperation in the deterrence and investigations of crimes.
The DNA information can be used to identify dead individuals as well.
Security and Privacy Concerns
Admittedly, there are a lot of things you can do with a person’s DNA, from ancestry checking, profile matching, paternity tests, or for medical testing.
The information will only become more valuable with time as technology progresses.
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Leader of Opposition Pritam Singh notes that the information may prove to be a security and privacy risk, even bringing up the SingHealth security breach from 2018 to expound on his worries.
During that hacking incident, the personal information of 1.5 million Singaporeans were exposed.
Six other MPs also raised questions relating to data protection.
Having said that, the MHA will be introducing legislative safeguards to protect the information in the various databases.
All accesses to the information will be logged and recorded through an audit trail to identify any data modification.
The Ministry acknowledges that this method might not be completely fool proof, so in the event that there is a data breach, there will be immediate remedial actions that follow standard operating procedures and workflows.
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For the innocents, your information will be automatically removed if your suspicions have been cleared and it is proven that you were not involved in the eligible or registerable crime.
If you are convicted, your information will only be removed when you die or if you make it 100 years old.
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For individuals who are acquitted, there is an extra step to follow to get your information taken out of the database, whereby you have to apply to have your data removed.
Ah, more paperwork to deal with.
The police will agree with the request unless the data is of use to other ongoing persecutions or investigations.
Should the acquitter’s application be rejected, they can appeal to a reviewing tribunal within 30 days of the police’s decision.
But the biggest takeaway here is that if you are truly innocent, you don’t have to fear the collection of your DNA. The police won’t have any reason to hold it against you then.
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