DNA Bill Adds Database for Missing Persons

Executive Director Gian Cho also shared how the DNA Bill could be a game-changer in solving missing persons cases and identifying human remains. The legislation would allow investigators to search a national DNA database, something Cho says will come with strict oversight and safeguards to protect privacy and prevent violations of rights. So, how will this work in practice? Here’s what he told us.

 

Gian Cho, Executive Director, NFSS

“Currently Belize does not have a DNA database. Worldwide there are a little over sixty countries that have established national databases where DNA profiles are kept in a secure server to search, investigate crime, to connect incidents to each other, to look back at past incidents, when new DNA profiles come into the database there may be a linkage into previous offense. There is also the powerful use of database to identify missing persons and human remains, familial relationships, kinship can be used to identify missing person, not for criminal investigations, but just to identify who the deceased person is or a sample from a person who went missing. So DNA databases are usually housed in two separate compartments, criminal database and a humanitarian database. So as we approach the DNA bill and establishment of this database we are applying some of the these practices to ensure criminal and humanitarian needs does not overlap with these best practices. When we are talking about somebody’s genetic data, we are only focusing on a specific part of the genetic data. We are not looking at skin color, eye color or ancestry. We are looking at STR markers, non coding regions of the genomes.”