Thank you.
My concern here is that in order to efficiently exchange DNA profiles, it should be done electronically on a largely bulk basis of the unsolved crime scene profiles that the data bank has. Otherwise there isn't any personal information attached to this. It's evidence that's been left at a crime scene that may have come from the prime suspect. It can't be sent abroad routinely in a bulk way to see whether it might fortuitously match a convicted offender or other crime scene in a foreign jurisdiction.
Obviously we would expect closer transfers of DNA suspects from closer countries, such as the U.S., but it's possible that given the rapid mobility of certain offenders, they may be European or from somewhere else in the world, and that by exchanging our DNA profiles routinely from our crime scene, which is anonymous and for which we have no identifying information largely, we could solve those crimes.
It's particularly significant when you have international connections. You are dealing with an international criminal in some form who is committing crimes here and abroad, and if they link together, you may be able to disrupt or prevent a serial offence from happening further somewhere in the world, whether that's terrorism or sexual predators, or just international organized crime.
I think the G-8 countries have recognized that this cooperation would be very useful. There are a lot of technical hurdles, because of the different systems involved, to make this work, but as a matter of routine, we would have to get a specific request under the current legislation from the police force involved to send their crime scene profiles abroad. That is logistically difficult for us, because we can't simply send our crime scene index and say, “Would you search this routinely abroad?” We would have to go through and find out which of those samples we have a specific request for and international search for, which is a logistical problem.