Machine translations by Deepl

Rotterdam chief of police wants to store DNA of all Dutch citizens

Chief of police Frank Paauw of the Rotterdam-Rijnmond police believes the DNA of all Dutch citizens should be compulsorily stored in a national database for crime detection. This stated chief of police Paauw in a interview in the party newspaper of Liveable Rotterdam. While privacy is "a great good" according to him, chief of police Paauw thinks the mass storage of DNA can "make the world a safer place".

Chief of police Paauw quotes in Leefbaar Rotterdam's party newspaper the 19e-century criminologist Lacassagne who argued that "every society gets the crime it deserves". Privacy First Foundation would also include privacy crime in this and is happy to point Chief of Police Paauw to a more relevant quote by Benjamin Franklin: "He who gives up freedom for security deserves neither."

Mandatory storage of the DNA of all Dutch citizens in a national database constitutes, a priori, a collective human rights violation. Indeed, its completely disproportionate nature alone represents a gross violation of the right to privacy and physical integrity of every Dutch citizen. Apart from the total lack of knowledge and respect for human rights displayed by Chief of Police Paauw with his remarks, this also testifies to an outdated vision of society in which security and privacy were a false contradiction for years. Privacy is security: the personal security of the individual in the face of a government that no longer trusts its own citizens and wishes to treat every Dutch citizen as a potential suspect. Privacy First wants to put a stop to this development, starting from a positive vision of society in which trust and freedom are basic values.

Update: Chief of police Paauw gets both from politicians and the Ministry of Security and Justice no support for his plan. Minister Opstelten calls it "disproportionate" and "over the top".