Introduction of crime fingerprinting
"My life changed on Monday morning at 9.05 am, 10 September 1984. What emerged was the world's first genetic fingerprint.”
Professor Alec Jeffreys.
Personal information isn’t just details we share about ourselves – it is the very essence of who we are. Professor Jeffreys developed the DNA fingerprinting when he realised that human DNA could produce unique patterns which could be used to identify individuals and determine family relationships.
Its first practical application was to help confirm the identify of a British boy in a disputed immigration case. Jeffreys said: “Of all the cases this is the one that means most to me. The court allowed me to let the family know we had proved their case, and I shall never forget the look in the mother's eyes.”
In 1987, the technique was used to help solve its first criminal case – the double murder of Dawn Ashworth and Lynda Mann. Through DNA fingerprinting, the prime suspect who had been charged with one of the murders was exonerated after it was proven that the DNA samples didn’t match. The real suspect later came forward.
As fingerprints are biometric data that can be used to uniquely identify a person, organisations must make sure this information is being processed lawfully and fairly.