Cops not sharing DNA dropped from cases: Justice Min.

Specialist police officers and forensic investigators who refuse to give a sample of their DNA for an internal database could be excluded from conducting criminal investigations in the future, Security and Justice Minster Ard van der Steur said on Wednesday in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of parliament. Van der Steur hopes to encourage officers to give a sample for the database, reports Het Parool. At present, 949 of the 1,249 detectives and forensic investigators have given a sample to the so-called elimination database. The other 300 have refused to do so, some on the basis of conscientious objection. According to the Constitution, these officers cannot be forced to give a DNA sample, but the minister thinks there is legitimate concern to question whether they can then participate in an investigation. Van der Steur also wants to ask new investigators beforehand whether they ware willing to give a DNA sample, Het Parool reports. The so-called elimination database is used to make sure that DNA evidence collected at a crime scene does not belong to one of the detectives involved in the investigation. According to Van der Steur, it is "completely undesirable" that some of the investigators are not in the database.