Last update - 00:00 23/10/2006
Knesset committee approves national DNA database
By Gideon Alon , Haaretz Correspondent
The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved Monday regulations that will allow police to create a national forensic database - including DNA samples, fingerprints, and photographs- in order to improve the way police handle and decipher criminal activity.
The forensic and identification records that are legally allowed to be in the database are fingerprints, biological samples (blood samples and hair samples), and photographs.
Committee Chairman Menachem Ben-Sasson (Kadima) said the approval of the regulations gives the police additional vital tools for winning the war on organized crime.
Ben-Sasson says that with the approval of the regulations, the committee struck a balance between defending human rights and advancing the war on criminality.