Should unknown DNA fingerprints be kept in the files longer? The boss of the Criminal Brigade, Michel Faury, pleads for in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche. He would like these files to remain until the statute of limitations for the crimes. This proposal appears in an administrative report.
Today, for the most serious crimes, fingerprints are kept for 25 years in the Automated Fingerprint File (Faed) and 40 years in the National Automated DNA File (Fnaeg). “Four decades before removing a trace, that may sound like a lot. But that’s not always enough. Hence our proposal to fix the withdrawal of all traces, in an unresolved case, on the prescription date, “said Michel Faury, adding that” in this way, the Fnaeg would be consistent with the prescription rules of the ‘police investigation “.
According to him, “this reform would be useful not for the mass of cases, but for the small number of mysterious crimes on which we have no elements of investigation”, that is to say regarding thirty crimes. “In general, there remain one to two cases per year, cold cases, which join the sixty cases handled in particular by the Criminal and Behavioral Analysis Unit of Complex Cases (UAC3)”, he said. for follow-up. “What a shame to cut off your wings by removing too quickly from the file unknown traces or the prints of people who have acted very young and who risk reoffending”, assures Michel Faury.
The example of “Hail”
To support his argument, the boss of the criminal brigade takes the example of François Vérove, a former police officer and gendarme, identified as the “Hail”, a killer and serial rapist wanted since the 1980s and suspected of five crimes committed between 1986 and 1994. His DNA turned out to match the genetic profile found at several crime scenes, explained the Paris prosecutor’s office.
“The DNA trace found at crime scenes in 1986 was not integrated into the Fnaeg until 2000, two years following the creation of this file. It might not therefore be deleted before 2040, which gave us room. But if the file had existed since 1986 and if it had been integrated immediately, as is the case today, the deadline would have been 2026 ”, commented the head of the criminal brigade.