To tackle international crimes, British and Australian police sign agreement to share DNA databases.
British and Australian police have agreed formally agreed to share their respective DNA databases with each other, in a deal that that could help tackle crimes such as terrorism, rapes and murders at an international level, on November 6, 2014. The agreement is a part of a a pilot programme that involves the two countries, as well as the US and Canada.
Australian Federal Police had reportedly already helped British officers in a cold case investigation previously. The two governments are looking for more opportunities to exchange DNA and other biometrics data across borders.
The pilot programme and the ‘Five Eyes’ DNA deal was initiated keeping it mind international cooperation precedents set by police forces in various countries to fight transnational crime. For instance, in 2013, biological data collected by US agencies helped identify an Australian killed in a drone strike in Yemen.
Currently, most countries approach Interpol, and international crime fighting organization, in case they want access to DNA data from other nations. In Australia, CrimTrac, a government agency, runs the National Criminal Investigation DNA Database (NCIDD), which is utilized by the Australian police in matching DNA profiles collected by local forces. The NCIDD comprises records of over 700,000 DNA profiles (noted in January 2013).
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