Italy is preparing to step into line with most of its European partners by setting up a DNA databank which should give police a better chance of identifying criminals.
Deputy Premier Francesco Rutelli gave the plan a decisive push earlier this month, noting that in Britain the existence of a database had allowed police to raise the proportion of criminals identified from 30 to 58%.
The justice ministry said this week that the 11 million euros needed to launch the initiative have now been set aside and ministers were expected to begin discussing the details of the plan on Friday.
But it may not be all plain sailing. Francesco Pizzetti, the president of Italy's Privacy Authority, has voiced reservations and called for clear rules on how the database will be used.
"What is this database for? What information is to be put into it? There needs to be clarity about how this data is collected so that people's dignity is always respected," he said in a press interview.
"Above all clarity is needed on which people can be forced to give samples and in which cases".
Leftists is the ruling coalition also appear to have reservations. The Communist Refoundation Party has said it is "not convinced" by what it called "cataloguing" of citizens and the Green party also expressed fears that this was the thin end of a wedge which would lead to DNA records being collected for the entire population.
The draft law penned by Justice Undersecretary Luigi Li Gotti envisages DNA samples being taken from anyone arrested for a violent crime punishable with a prison sentence of over three years. DNA code would be extracted from a saliva sample.
DNA FROM PRISONERS.
The proposed legislation would also take DNA from the entire prison population. If a person is first accused and then cleared of a crime, his or her DNA record would be erased.
The database could also include DNA from the family of missing persons, but only on a voluntary basis.
"The DNA code extracted from biological samples is completely anonymous and offers no sensitive information about the person it came from," assured Alberto Intini, head of Italian police's forensic science unit.
Maurizio Fistarol, an MP with the Daisy party and one of the many supporters of the initiative, said the databank is "a measure that in terms of security finally puts Italy on the same level as the rest of Europe".
At present the only European countries without some form of DNA databank are Italy, Greece and Ireland. The categories of people whose DNA is recorded varies slightly but the goal is always to fight crime.
France this week passed legislation introducing DNA tests to prove that immigrants applying to enter the country to join relatives already there were in fact really related.
One rightwing MP in Italy immediately suggested doing the same thing.
The push to set up the database is partly the result of Italy's decision last year to sign up to the Treaty of Pruem.
The agreement fosters ways of tackling cross-border crime by allowing for individual DNA profiles to be directly compared to those from computerised databases of other member states, for instance for identification and prosecution purposes.
The 2005 agreement, already signed by seven other states, seeks to boost cross-border cooperation, with a particular focus on fighting terrorism, cross-border crime and illegal immigration.
