Bill would allow police to sample DNA at arrest
INDIANAPOLIS - Collecting DNA could become almost as common for police as collecting fingerprints under a bill making its way through the Indiana Senate.
Senate Bill 24 would allow police to collect DNA from anyone arrested on a felony charge, rather than just those who are convicted.
Supporters say adding that DNA to state and federal databases could help solve crimes and potentially prevent them.
But opponents say extending DNA testing so widely is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.
"Why not just get everyone's DNA when they are born?" asked state Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson. "There is still a presumption of innocence in our system."
Indiana's DNA database began in 1996 and has since been slowly expanded to include about 122,000 samples, The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne reported Sunday. Using the database yields a suspect about 40 percent of the time, said Major Ed Littlejohn, head of the Indiana State Police Laboratory.
But a DNA consultant from Pennsylvania who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week said solving crimes is just the start.
"We don't begin to maximize the potential of DNA technology until we are actually at the stage where we are preventing crimes," said Chris Asplen. "The nature of serial crimes is the sooner we identify the perpetrator the sooner we prevent crime."
A Chicago study found that requiring DNA upon arrest could have prevented dozens of murders and rapes. In one case, a man who was arrested for felony theft went on to commit a murder and left DNA evidence at the scene six months later.
If his DNA had been taken at the time of his theft arrest, Asplen said the man would have been caught after the first murder. Instead, he went on to kill 10 women.
But not everyone who is arrested is convicted, and critics like the American Civil Liberties Union worry about privacy.
The bill's author, Sen. Joe Zakas, D-Granger, said initial court rulings have upheld other states' DNA test at arrest laws as constitutional. In one case, the Virginia Supreme Court compared taking DNA samples at arrest to taking fingerprints.
The committee did amend the bill last week to include a provision allowing those whose cases never result in formal charges or are later dismissed or acquitted to expunge their DNA from the database.
But Larry Landis, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council, contends the expungement should be automatic.
"The person falsely accused ought not bear any burden," he said. "It's just another hoop to jump through. If you get dismissed, there should not only be an automatic expungement, there should be an apology."
Littlejohn said state police might have to expunge more than 100 samples a day under the amendment, in part because 40 percent of cases statewide are dismissed. That would overwhelm the lab, he said.
The Legislative Services Agency estimates it would cost $3.8 million annually to analyze and maintain the additional DNA samples. A representative from Strand Analytical Laboratories in Indianapolis cited a study saying the state would save almost $20 million a year because of crimes that are prevented, but Landis says such savings are speculative.
The bill passed out of committee 7-2 last week and now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
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Hopefully this will pass , and then have it in other states across America..and eventually into Canada
