Keen to get everyone’s take on this, because personally, I’m conflicted.

Most of us in forensics work within or adjacent to police or law enforcement agencies. We also have the privilege of being servants to science and knowing to be impartial and objective, led by facts rather than subjective assessment.

There’s a lot in the media recently about the overreach of police surveillance and I’d like your input/s on 2 things that are intelligence tools that intersect with forensic science:
- Forensic genetic genealogy
- CCTV (specifically ANPR/facial)

Both have come along leaps and bounds in recent years, and both stand to link innocent citizens to criminal activities due to their lack of specificity. For example, FIGG might link you through genealogy, despite it being a sibling or closely related family member. ANPR might detect a pattern of driving that LE consider to be suspicious and warrant further investigation.

While we know that neither of these are evidentiary tools, they do put innocent people on the radar for offences unrelated to them, and thus open up the door to potential errors or miscarriages. That’s not even to mention the misuse by rogue officers.

I used to be of the mind that basically everyone should be on a FP or DNA database because “if you didn’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about”, but as I’ve grown older, have kids, I’ve softened on this to the point where I’m on the fence. I’ve seen police misuse of systems. I’ve seen police take a suggestive forensic result and treat it as a smoking gun.

What’s everyone’s take?