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Judge Arthur Tompkins, an honorary member of Interpol's DNA monitoring expert group, says there needs to be a debate about the technique - which involves crime-scene samples being compared to the national DNA databank to search for relatives of an offender - before the technique becomes even more widespread.
"The effect of it is to increase the footprint of the database without Parliament having legislated for that increased footprint," the Hamilton-based judge said.
Critics of the technique say it raises serious privacy issues and has the potential to subject entire families to "life-long genetic surveillance". It has been banned in parts of the US, where the Columbia Law Review says the practice is not "racially neutral" and has a disproportionate impact on minorities.
Police national headquarters released figures to the Sunday Star-Times showing that they have asked Environmental Science & Research (ESR)...