Get Arrested - Give DNA - Samples would be taken from anyone arrested

[liberal N proud]

U.S. seeks to widely expand DNA database
Samples would be taken from anyone arrested or detained by feds

Washington Post

The U.S. government will soon begin collecting DNA samples from all citizens arrested in connection with any federal crime and from many immigrants detained by federal authorities, adding genetic identifiers from more than 1 million individuals a year to the swiftly growing federal law enforcement DNA database.

The policy will substantially expand the current practice of routinely collecting DNA samples from only those convicted of federal crimes, and it will build on a growing policy among states to collect DNA from many people who are arrested. Thirteen states do so now and turn their data over to the federal government.

The initiative, to be published as a proposed rule in the Federal Register in coming days, reflects a congressional directive that DNA from arrestees be collected to help catch a range of domestic criminals. But it also requires, for the first time, the collection of DNA samples from people other than U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who are detained by U.S. authorities.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24173094/

[notesdev]

1. How does

a 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people' sign on to a disgraceful policy like this one?

It looks more like a 'government above the people' these days than anything else.

[Fleshdancer]

2. I don't like it

The photo and fingerprint process seems adequate and far more efficient to me.

I believe it was 20/20 that did a show several years ago on the large number of rape kits that remain unprocessed because the cost of analyzing the DNA samples were too high. I have a hard time believing the collection, analyzing, and storing of hundreds of thousands of samples is worth the cost and intrusion.

I also have a hard time believing the average person could afford to have their DNA analyzed on their own in order to prove their innocence if the is a mix up. DNA is an exact science, but only if you're sure the sample is indeed your own.

[spanone]

3. whether guilty or not

[flashl]

4. Suspicions are appropriate especially when the criminal justice system raises questions such as ...

Judge: False DNA common

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge says that he warned prosecutors and San Jose police years ago against using phony crime lab reports as a ruse during interrogations - long before the recent controversy that forced police to disavow the practice.

The warning from Judge Ray Cunningham, now the presiding judge of the county's criminal courts, is one indication uncovered this past week that the police use of the phony reports during questioning of sex crime suspects was more extensive than previously known. Cunningham said the case dated to the 1990s. In a separate 2002 case, detective Juan Serrano described the use of ruse crime lab reports as "standard procedure" at that time.

...

Police detectives also created a false report bearing the name of fictional analyst Rebecca Roberts when they convinced Marino Hernandez in 2002 to give a DNA sample that linked him to a series of sexual assaults, court records show.

...

Serrano's partner, Todd Trayer, testified that he had invented Roberts' name when he created the false report for questioning Hernandez. Trayer told the court that he entered information into a "boilerplate faux DNA sheet" that was used in the sexual assaults unit, printed the form out and took it to his interview with Hernandez.

The form appears authentic, bearing the seal of the county district attorney, which operates the lab.

Houston Crime Lab misplaced 280 boxes of evidence spanning over 25 years

A 2002 audit of the laboratory revealed irregularities casting doubt on evidence in countless cases. The DNA and blood division was shut down, and a month ago, Chief Hurtt announced that police investigators had found 280 boxes of lost evidence, including a fetus and body parts, involving as many as 8,000 cases.

[meow2u3]

5. I have mixed feelings about this

DNA can either implicate and/or help convict the real criminal, with the exception of identical twins, or can exonerate someone falsely accused of a crime.

I favor this policy only insofar as it can help free the wrongly accused and/or put the real criminals behind bars; on the other hand, routine DNA screening for everyone arrested is scary in the wrong hands. What if some politically motivated prosecutor plants DNA evidence on someone who has a problem with government policies? That's creeping fascism. :scared:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. This is not necessary if someone has been wrongly accused of a crime. If their own DNA

doesn't match the DNA that is part of the evidence, they should be exonerated.

To take DNA, purely on the basis of being arrested is horrendous/fascist and by placing it in a data base due to arrest and Not conviction would not be due process IMHO.