{"id":18085,"date":"2021-01-16T19:24:27","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T00:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=18085"},"modified":"2021-01-16T19:24:27","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T00:24:27","slug":"hundreds-of-thousands-of-fingerprint-dna-and-arrest-records-accidentally-wiped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2021\/01\/16\/hundreds-of-thousands-of-fingerprint-dna-and-arrest-records-accidentally-wiped\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of thousands of fingerprint, DNA and arrest records accidentally wiped"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Work to restore hundreds of thousands of fingerprint, DNA and arrest records accidentally wiped from police databases is ongoing, the Home Office has said.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Around 400,000 records were lost,\u00a0according to The Times<\/a>, which first reported the story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Home Office did not comment on how many records were likely to be restored, or how long it would take.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Home Secretary Priti Patel said the issue was “a result of human error”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Data was wiped from the Police National Computer (PNC) – which stores and shares criminal records information across the UK – after being inadvertently flagged for deletion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The PNC is used in police investigations and provides real-time checks on people, vehicles and crimes, as well as whether suspects are wanted for any unsolved offences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The coding that caused the problem was introduced in November 2020, and the deletions started earlier this week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Initially, it was thought some 150,000 records were lost, but it since has emerged the number could be significantly higher.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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