Concerns have been raised after it emerged the PSNI holds the DNA of more than 247,000 people on its database - around one-in-six of the north’s adult population.
New figures also reveal that more than 323,000 fingerprints, including more than 14,000 linked to the Troubles, and 182,000 photographs are also retained by the force.
Human rights group Liberty said on Friday that questions need to be asked about the scale “of this intrusion into people’s privacy by the PSNI”.
The numbers appear to have doubled in the last decade. In January 2015 it was reported that the PSNI held the DNA of 123,000 people.
Police say there are currently 247,895 individual profiles on the “NI DNA Database” adding that an “unknown minority” will be duplicate profiles of those already held.
Around 14,067 “historic anti-terrorist prints” are still retained, although the PSNI say an unknown number of these “will be duplicates of those already held in the larger collection”.
The force also holds images in relation to 182,253 “unique individuals” against a PSNI record on their NICHE record management system.
Police say the “main source of these photographs is captured” during processing in PSNI stations, alongside fingerprints and DNA.
They add that photographs are captured every time an individual is processed and there will be “multiple photographs for each individual record”.
On census day in 2021 there were more than 1.5m people above the age of 15 living in the north.
That means that the number of people whose DNA is retained, represents around one in six of the adult population.
Charlie Whelton, Policy and Campaigns Officer at Liberty voiced concern over the PSNI retention of personal data.
“It is of concern that the PSNI are holding data of the most intimate sort for hundreds of thousands of people, including the DNA profiles of almost a quarter of a million people,” he said.
“And an unknown number may be people never convicted of an offence.
“Questions need to be asked over the sheer scale of this intrusion into people’s privacy by the PSNI.”
A spokeswoman for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission said it “continues to monitor the law and policy around DNA retention in Northern Ireland”.
“The commission recommends that the (PSNI) ensures its policy on biometric data retention is fully human rights compliant,” she said.
The spokeswoman added that the commission recommends that the Department of Justice “commences the DNA retention sections of the Criminal Justice Act”.
A spokeswoman for the PSNI said: “The Police Service of Northern Ireland welcomes the forthcoming Justice Bill, as introduced to the assembly on September 17, 2024.
“Part 1 of the Justice Bill relates to biometric data and the provision of a revised legal framework for its retention and deletion.
“Until this legislation is enacted, the police service remains fully compliant with the Police Service of Northern Ireland Interim Service Instruction which was introduced in November 2023.
“This policy confirms the position that any individual may apply to the Police Service to have their biometrics deleted from local and national databases.
“This will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”