By PAUL YANDALL
The Government's plan to extend DNA testing to suspected burglars will be worthless without proper funding, says Police Association president Greg O'Connor.
DNA testing has changed the face of policing over the past decade, but Mr O'Connor said budget cuts and overworked staff and testing labs meant it was not being used effectively.
Justice Minister Phil Goff confirmed yesterday that the Government's plans to DNA test burglary suspects would proceed with the introduction of the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill this year.
At present, police can take samples only of suspects of violent crimes and convicted burglars, and have to get an order from a High Court judge before a compulsory test can be conducted.
The bill also proposes using mouth swabs instead of blood samples for testing, allowing DNA from foetal tissue to be compared with suspects' samples, particularly in rape cases, and giving courts more freedom when making compulsion orders.
The Government has budgeted an extra $900,000 over the next three years for the extra testing. The money is intended to enable an extra 550 DNA samples to be taken and processed.
Mr O'Connor said DNA testing was an invaluable frontline police tool, but budget and staff pressures needed to be addressed. It remained to be seen if the proposed financing would translate into the expected number of tests.
"It's a move in the right direction, but unless they [the Government] can resource it properly then it's not going to be as effective as they think."
Police Commissioner Rob Robinson last year asked area managers to review the number of DNA blood samples because of budget blowouts.
The number of samples sent in for testing by Environmental Science and Research had steadily increased, resulting in delays to cases. Police have to wait up to three months for routine DNA test results.
The president of the Criminal Bar Association, Richard Earwaker, said there were already large backlogs and this would increase the scope for error and wrongful convictions.
In one such case, Peter Robert Howse was freed of a 1996 rape offence that subsequent DNA tests showed he almost certainly committed.
In another case, a Christchurch man was a suspect in two Wellington murders he could not have committed, as he was in Christchurch at the time. In this case it was later concluded that DNA samples were accidentally contaminated.
Auckland Council of Civil Liberties spokesman Phil Recordon said the extra testing was another blow for individual rights.
But Mr Goff said it would bring burglaries into line with other serious crimes in New Zealand. There were no plans to extend it to other crimes. "We've been taking DNA compulsion orders now for five years. There are safeguards to protect people ... People are still presumed innocent until proven guilty."
DNA funding boost essential say police
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