Photo/Illutration Hideyuki Fukuda, chief of the Saga prefectural police, apologizes for a crime lab employee’s misconduct concerning DNA analyses at a prefectural assembly session on Sept. 17. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

As a string of criminal cases reliant on suspect statements led to wrongful convictions that have been overturned in retrials, the importance of scientific investigations based on objective evidence, particularly DNA analysis, is growing.

Police departments across the country must urgently verify that no fraud or errors have undermined public trust in this crucial form of criminal profiling.

It has come to light that an employee of the Saga prefectural police crime lab repeatedly engaged in misconduct concerning DNA tests.

Hired in 2012, the technician handled 632 examinations. Improper acts have been confirmed in 130 cases conducted since 2017.

The employee pretended to have conducted analyses that were never performed, altered numerical values to make it easier to obtain a supervisor’s approval, falsified dates and figures on documents and even lost gauze pieces used in examinations.

The inappropriate actions spanned the entire process of DNA testing. It is an astonishing state of affairs.

According to the prefectural police, the technician resorted to misconduct out of a desire to make his work performance appear superior, among other reasons, and a lack of proper oversight allowed it to go undetected for a long time.

The prefectural police have re-examined stored samples and reviewed electronic data for cases where materials were lost.

They concluded that the misconduct did not affect final analysis results and explained that prosecutors and courts have confirmed that investigations and trials were not compromised.

While apologizing before the prefectural assembly, Hideyuki Fukuda, chief of Saga prefectural police, argued that there is no need to establish a third-party investigative committee.

Fukuda said the prefecture’s Public Safety Commission, which is composed of experts, has reviewed the findings of the police investigation.

However, to restore public trust, it is essential that the investigation itself be conducted by an external body. The decision should not be left to the judgment of the Saga prefectural police.

DNA analysis was first put into practical use in Japan in 1989.

In the early 2000s, the introduction of modern techniques still in use today dramatically improved accuracy, leading to a surge in test numbers and the launch of a database system.

Over the past decade, between 250,000 and 300,000 examinations have been conducted nationwide each year.

A look back on its history shows that the testing of DNA, which is considered the ultimate form of personal information, is a double-edged sword.

In the 1990 Ashikaga case, in which a young girl was killed, an innocent man was coerced into a “confession” based on the flawed result of a low-accuracy analysis of the time.

Yet, it was also DNA testing--new and more advanced--that paved the way for exonerations in retrials for the Ashikaga case, as well as for the murder of a Tokyo Electric Power Co. employee in 1997.

This is precisely why proper procedures must be rigorously enforced at every stage, from the collection and storage of samples, through the analysis itself to subsequent preservation and registration of results.

While the National Public Safety Commission has regulations on the handling of DNA profiles in criminal investigations, significant aspects, such as criteria for expunging data, are left to the discretion of law enforcement authorities.

The time has come to begin serious discussions on enacting legislation, drawing on precedents in other countries.

--The Asahi Shimbun Sept. 22

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