A divided federal appeals court ruled Thursday that California law
enforcement officials can keep collecting DNA samples from people
arrested for felonies.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said law enforcement’s interest in
solving cold cases, identifying crime suspects and even exonerating the
wrongly accused outweigh any privacy concerns raised by the forced DNA
collections.
The 2-1 ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by four Californians who were arrested on felony charges but never convicted.
The arrestees sought a court order barring collection of DNA from people
who are arrested but not convicted, arguing the process is an
unconstitutional search and seizure since some suspects will later be
exonerated.
The DNA samples are obtained with a swab of the cheek and stored in the
state’s DNA database, which contains 1.9 million profiles. Arrestees who
are never charged with a felony can apply to have their samples
expunged from the database.
The state Department of Justice said it has had roughly 20,000 “hits’’
connecting suspects with previous crimes since it began collecting the
DNA profiles.
Judge Mylan Smith Jr., writing for the two-judge majority, said the
useful law enforcement tool wasn’t any more intrusive than
fingerprinting.
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