New drive to take criminals' DNA

27 September 2012 Last updated at 13:20 ET

Police forces in England and Wales have begun a large-scale operation to collect DNA samples from about 12,000 serious offenders who are not on the national DNA database.

Operation Nutmeg will see officers collect swabs from sex offenders and murderers living in the community.

Criminals are often not on the database if they were convicted before 1994, when sample-taking became routine.

The scheme has been launched after a successful pilot exercise in Hampshire.

Police hope the collection of thousands of new samples could help to solve so-called cold-cases, where a new sample is linked to a past crime.

Speaking at a briefing on Thursday, Amanda Cooper, director of information, science and technology at Thames Valley Police, said officers would approach individuals between now and next summer to collect the samples.

Police forces have been given lists of offenders living in their areas and will work though them to collect the samples.

The lists have been drawn up based on information from the Police National Computer, which was first used in the 1970s.

Alex Marshall, the chief constable of Hampshire police, said 167 samples were taken from a list of 471 convicted criminals during the pilot operation.

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New drive to take criminals' DNA