Giving fingerprints, photographs and samples

The police have the right to:

  • take photographs of you
  • take fingerprints
  • take a DNA sample, such as from a mouth swab or head hair root
  • swab the skin surface of your hands and arms

They do not need your permission to do this.

The police need both your permission and the authority of a senior police officer to take samples like blood or urine, or to take dental impressions.

This does not apply when they take a blood or urine sample in connection with drink or drug driving.

Information from fingerprints and samples is stored in a police database.

You can find out if your information is stored on the police database by getting a copy of your police records from your local police station.

You have to write to your local police force to have your personal information removed from the police database.

They’ll only do this if either:

  • an offence no longer exists
  • if anything in the police process was unlawful – for example, how you were arrested or detained