Further Cold Case Stuff

After writing my post on cold cases, I decided that I would see what else I could do on this matter. The main reasons is it interests me.  Think about it.  You see all these American cop shows on, and someone does something to hire a private investigator and then they solve the case where the cops couldn't.  Well, maybe I could do something (then again, I am an idiot…) to bring something to the table. I mean I can investigate something can’t I?

So let's talk about private investigators.  First off I want to know if I can become one and what it would take to get to this position. First off, they are a part of law enforcement (Sort of) so would probably fall within the remit of the Home Office…  Apparently not. They did, however, refer me to the Security Industry Authority. So what did they say?  The Home Office has been looking to regulate Private Investigators, in the United Kingdom, since 2013 but nothing certain just yet. They also refered me to their website which gave some more details of how to become a Private Investigator. This is interesting; it shows that this is something that is a grey area.

OK, well… Let's have a think about where to turn to next. DNA testing?  That would be something to get a hold of, wouldn't it?  So how would we be able to get it?  Let’s ask the Office of the Biometrics Commissioner whose “role is to keep under review the retention and use by the police of DNA samples, DNA profiles and fingerprints”.  When I asked them how to get third party DNA on cold cases, they told me that they were not subject to the FoI act, but did give me a website to download some details on… (to be honest they did seem a bit miffed at me…).  

So what about the The National DNA Database Ethics Group?  They provide “independent advice on ethical issues surrounding the operations of the database to Home Office ministers and the National DNA Database Strategy Board”.  They would be able to tell me what are the issues surrounding this issue.  At time of writing, they have yet to get back to me.

So I asked the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) about their “Cold Cases”... More specifically, how many they had…  Only to be told that they do not call old them “Cold Cases” and was given a number of attached responses from previous requests. Fair enough.  Ok, The Home Office should know something about this… Shouldn't they have a set of rules or guidelines of which they give to police forces?  Well, at time of writing, they have yet to get back to me.

So what have we found out so far?  Private investigators are not regulated, and that it is hard to get information about cold cases and that the Office of Biometrics is a bit of a muppet. Seriously thought, I have learnt that there are more issues here than meets the eye.  There is the whole issue of how to regulate private investigators (Which links back to the Daniel Morgan Murder), the whole issue of should amateurs be given DNA on cold cases AND there is a whole lot of murders out there.  All in all, an interesting little insight.