Paper short abstract:

This paper examines what ethical duties and imperatives arise when police are proposing to rely upon forensic genetic technologies, and where responsibility lies for discharging these ethical duties.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will respond to a recent provocation by a police policy-lead who, when faced with a challenge to the utilisation of biometrics responded: “Our duty is to protect the public, it’s for others to worry about ethics.” Continuing recent explorations of ethics in forensic genetics by Wienroth et al, the paper looks at duties and imperatives in forensic genetics, asking what duties might exist, and where responsibility for discharging them lies.