SYDNEY, N.S. – Police chiefs in Canada are urging the federal government to move forward with a national missing persons and unidentified human remains DNA index.
Dale McFee, the past president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, says the index would provide for the collection and storage of DNA data for missing persons and unidentified human remains.
He says the index would help police and coroners offer greater closure in missing person cases and reassure families police are using all of the available technologies in an effort to find a missing person.
Canada’s DNA Identification Act doesn’t allow for the storage of missing person or unidentified human remains DNA samples in the crime scenes index, which is composed of DNA profiles obtained from certain types of unsolved crimes.
Police chiefs at a conference of the Canadian association, which wrapped up in Membertou, N.S., on Wednesday, also passed a resolution calling on member police departments to adopt the recommendations of a far-reaching report on preventing wrongful convictions.
The report delves into causes of wrongful convictions, including tunnel vision, eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, use of in-custody informers and inappropriate use of forensic evidence and expert testimony.
The police chiefs also called on the national federal, provincial and territorial governments to develop a national strategy to disrupt and neutralize Canadian-based cybercrime.
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