Around half of the Metropolitan Police’s 33,000 officers could be missing from its own DNA and fingerprint databases hampering efforts to weed out sex predators like Wayne Couzens.
Scotland Yard bosses are planning a multimillion-pound 12-month project to retake staff biometric data, which is expected to face fierce opposition.
It is understood as many as 16,600 current serving officers’ DNA samples and 19,100 fingerprints are not on the force’s systems.
Labour’s Dawn Butler, who wrote to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley with concerns last October, is furious having been reassured that “the majority” of officer DNA profiles are stored.
In a letter responding to her inquiry, the Met’s director of forensic services - who admitted “there is currently a gap” - told the Brent East MP: “We intend to establish a robust process to ensure samples are collected from those officers whose samples are not on the database and will seek to do this within 12 months.”
Under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, at recruitment all officers are required to provide their DNA and a scan of fingerprints to be held on two police elimination databases.
Those who transfer into the Met from other forces, should have their biometric data sent on to the Yard.
It now appears over the last decade, DNA and fingerprints may have been taken incorrectly when officers joined - or been destroyed by their previous constabulary.
The scale of missing biometrics puts the Met at huge risk of being unable to detect criminality within its ranks.
Police were heavily criticised for failing to properly investigate accusations of indecent exposure against Couzens before he kidnapped, raped and murdered 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard in 2021 was she walked home in Clapham, south London.
An inquiry chaired by Lady Elish Angiolini into vetting failures found Couzens should never have been given a job as an officer and chances to stop him were repeatedly ignored and missed.
Ms Butler told the Standard: “I’ve long argued it’s essential that all serving police officers have their DNA profiles retained on police databases – for crime elimination, but also for accountability and transparency following cases of police misconduct.
“I was heavily abused on social media last year for suggesting this may not be happening fully.
“Now, it is extremely concerning to learn the Met Police has a large number of officers missing from the database – so I was right to be concerned.
“I wrote to the Met last year and was assured it would be rectified by now. So, I will be following up.
“We must also ensure every serving officer in all other police forces in England and Wales are on the database – regardless of when they joined or if they transferred between forces.
“It’s an essential and simple step to help restore faith in our police service and it can’t wait any longer.”
A Met spokesman said: “On joining the police, officers are required to provide a DNA sample and fingerprints to allow us to eliminate them from forensic evidence found during investigations.
“When an officer leaves, DNA is held for 12 months and fingerprints for three months before being destroyed.
“Not all officers’ DNA profiles are currently held on our systems. There are various reasons for this, including where they joined before samples were routinely collected.
“We’re in the process of assessing those samples we don’t currently hold, and ensuring our processes to collect them are robust and effective. We expect this work to conclude in the next 12 months.”
