Fears About DNA Testing Proposal�
02:00 AM Mar. 31, 2003 PT
In a report (PDF) on the future of DNA forensics, the Justice Department predicted that by 2010, police will use hand-held DNA analyzers to verify people's identity in the field. The report also touts the benefits of including the general population in police DNA databases and of singling out a suspect's physical characteristics from a genetic sample.
The expansion of police DNA databases to include crime suspects -- and, potentially, the general public -- is a prime example of "function creep," said Tod Burke, a criminal justice professor at Virginia's Radford University.
Forensic DNA databases were originally created for one specific purpose: to compare the DNA of convicted violent felons to blood, semen, hair or other biological material left at the scenes of unsolved crimes.
Virginia set up the nation's first such database in 1989 and quickly broadened its inventory to include DNA samples from convicted sex offenders, nonviolent felons and even juveniles who have been convicted as adults.
"This year, Virginia became the first state to take DNA from people who've just been charged with a violent crime," Burke said. "During the booking process they go ahead and take a cheek swab. For civil libertarians this is outrageous. The person hasn't even been tried. What ever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty?'"
Supporters argue that the databases are a peerless crime-solving tool. Virginia's database -- the largest in the country with samples from nearly 200,000 convicted felons -- has been instrumental in solving more than 100 homicides, 200 rapes and 450 burglaries, state authorities said.
The Justice Department did not respond to interview requests about Patriot Act II.
Today, all 50 states have forensic DNA databases and local law enforcement agents have aggressively added material to their genetic libraries. DNA dragnets -- wherein police stop random people fitting a suspect's description and request a DNA sample -- are becoming increasingly common.
Last month, Louisiana police launched one of the largest such dragnets in history, sampling DNA from nearly 1,000 men in their search for a serial murderer. The men who initially refused to cooperate with police over DNA privacy concerns faced being branded as potential killers.
Critics worry that Patriot Act II will lead to similar dragnets designed to collect DNA from people of Middle Eastern descent and even political dissenters. Furthermore, the proposed legislation contains no information about how suspects can eliminate their DNA from the database if they are proven innocent.
"It's astonishing," said Harold Krent, the dean of the Chicago Kent College of Law. "The (measure) sanctions a Fourth Amendment search when we have a solid dividing line in our jurisprudence between treading on someone's privacy once they've been convicted of anti-social conduct and not before."
While a landmark Massachusetts case found that Fourth Amendment rights do not apply to the genetic sampling of convicted felons, it has not yet been tested in a lawsuit involving a suspect who was forced to donate DNA.
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