Law enforcement officials are vastly expanding their collection of DNA to include millions more people who have been arrested or detained but not yet convicted. The move (reported on by the NYT), is intended to help solve more crimes-- but at the same time is raising serious concerns about the privacy of petty offenders and people who are presumed innocent.
Until now, the federal government genetically tracked only convicts. But starting this month, the FBI (with a current DNA database of 6.7 million individuals) will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will collect DNA from detained immigrants.
The FBI , with a currently DNA processing backlog in excess of 500,00 cases, is projecting to increase its annual DNA profiling rate by a whopping 1,700% over the next three years. Law enforcement officials say that expanding DNA databases to include legally innocent people will help solve more violent crimes. But criminal justice experts cite Fourth Amendment privacy concerns and worry that the nation is becoming a genetic surveillance society.
Courts have generally upheld laws authorizing compulsory collection of DNA from convicts and ex-convicts under supervised release, on the grounds that criminal acts diminish privacy rights. However, DNA extraction upon arrest potentially erodes that argument, a recent Congressional study found. “Courts have not fully considered legal implications of recent extensions of DNA-collection to people whom the government has arrested but not tried or convicted,” the report said.
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