DNA Bill passed by House of Representatives - Why DNA Bill may be unauthorized Biometric Data Collection on Jamaicans

“These are issues which need to be addressed, and we should not pass this Bill without implicit assurance that the constitutional rights of our citizens will be protected at all levels”

Opposition spokesman on National Security Derrick Smith commenting on the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Evidence Act 2015 which was passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday November 17^th 2015

The very controversial Bill in Jamaica has been quietly passed in the House of Representatives.

I’m of course referring to the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Evidence Act 2015 which was passed on Tuesday November 17^th 2015 as reported in the article “House finally passes DNA Bill”, published Wednesday, November 18, 2015 BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter, The Jamaica Observer .

The Bill will now go to the Senate for approval after which time I’ll go into Law. Attorney General Patrick Atkinson was upbeat on the prospects of the soon-to-be enacted DNA bill, quote:  “It takes away from persons who have committed serious crimes the opportunity to hide from justice”

But we might have to wait awhile longer it seems.

A delay of six months was the result of a request by Opposition spokesman on National Security Derrick Smith to refer the Bill to a joint select committee of Parliament for further review. This was to allow other individuals or institutions, like the Bar Association, to submit concerns.

Apparently they had a lot of concerns, many of which were voiced in my blog article entitled “DNA Evidence Act 2015 tabled in Lower House - Why National DNA Registry is Minority Report for Anonymous Hacker”. 

Many of these concerns centered on the ease with which evidence could be planted and how long the authorities could retain DNA evidence in the National DNA Registry's Database, even if you were not convicted of a crime.

Now it appears that another two (2) year will have to elapse before these issues are resolved, as many do not like what appears to be the state's ability to collect biometric data and store it indefinitely without your consent. 

DNA Bill passed by House of Representatives - Why DNA Bill may be unauthorized Biometric Data collection on Jamaicans

According to minister of National Security, Peter Bunting, the concerns raised by the Bar Association were already addressed in the current draft of the DNA Bill. However, many are not comfortable with the retention of DNA evidence even when not convicted of a crime, as albeit like a fingerprint, it's a lot easier to collect an easier to plant at a crime scene.

Opposition spokesman on Justice Delroy Chuck was quick to point out that it could also free the innocent. Many Jamaicans already distrust the Justice system and have little faith that this positive benefit would equally work in their favour, given the slow Justice system and corrupt Jamaican Police.

As Opposition spokesman on National Security Derrick Smith rightly put it, protecting ordinary Jamaicans from forceful mouth swabs to collect their DNA will be hard to police, as this could technically be misinterpreted as resisting arrest, despite the Section 3 of the constitution giving you the “right to equitable and humane treatment by any public authority in the exercise of any function”.   

Still it's potential to curtail crime would be further magnified if the Ministry of Security were to have all Jamaicans registered their smartphones as well, as it would make it easier to gain access to Call Data and GPS Location data as noted in my blog article entitled “@Digicel_Jamaica vs @INDECOM_JAMAICA and Call Subscriber Records - How Jamaican Police use Phone Records in Criminal Investigations and trample Right to Privacy”.

Will be interesting to see what will become of the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Evidence Act 2015 after the two years of review by the joint select committee of Parliament has passed!

The Jamaica Constitution

The Jamaica Constitution 1962 - In a Nutshell