Published 13 May 2021 at 12.08
Domestic. The police have no legal support for using DNA genealogy in investigating serious crimes. This is stated by the Privacy Protection Authority, IMY, in a statement, reports P3 Krim.
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It got a lot of attention when the police last year used DNA genealogy research to solve the double murder in Linköping in 2004.
The police believe that it should be possible to use DNA-based genealogy databases to identify the perpetrator in certain types of extremely serious crimes, where the perpetrator could not be identified with available investigative measures.
The police authority has submitted a request for prior consultation in the matter to the Privacy Protection Agency (IMY).
– In some cases, regarding very serious crimes with extensive investigations, the ability to search for close relatives of a suspected perpetrator can be crucial, for example as in the double murder in Linköping in 2004. Through that work, we could, after 16 years, arrest and prosecute the person who had murdered two people, says Jan Staaf, commissioner and member of the working group for the introduction of the method.
But IMY has now returned with a message. The authority considers, in contrast to the Police Authority, that the planned processing would mean that personal data is processed in violation of law.
– The main reason is that there is a prohibition in the Criminal Data Act for the police to perform searches in order to obtain produce a selection of people if the search is based on sensitive personal data, which DNA is thus counted as “says Lisa Zettervall, lawyer at IMY, to P3.
IMY therefore advises the Police Authority not to continue with the method of searching DNA- based genealogy databases.
– We have received the IMY opinion and are analyzing it. At present, it is difficult to say what consequences this may have, but of course it is a setback for the work of identifying unknown perpetrators in certain very serious types of crime, says Ricky Ansell, operations expert at NFC.