The US government will begin collecting DNA samples from every person arrested under federal laws. Federal agencies are authorized to collect DNA samples under a 2006 amendment to the Violence Against Women Act, but previously had only collected DNA from people actually convicted of federal crimes. Using authority granted by Congress, the government also plans to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained, whether they have been charged or not. The DNA would be collected through a cheek swab, Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Wednesday.

Supporters of the new measures say the expanded database will help prevent crime, but civil rights groups have expressed privacy concerns. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. sponsored the 2005 law that gave the Justice Department this authority.

It is being erroneously reported that thirteen states have implemented similar laws and that these laws have been upheld in court. Thirteen states have implemented laws, and in November 2007, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit did rule that all convicted federal felons must provide DNA samples to a federal database available to police departments throughout the country. In 2005, the Third Circuit ruled that a convicted bank robber had to submit DNA samples to CODIS. Also a New Jersey state appeals court upheld a comparable state law in 2005. Notice the term “convicted”

Justice Department

About 1.2 million additional people could be added to the FBI’s Combined DNA Indexing System (CODIS) every year under the expansion. Erik Ablin, Justice Department spokesman, said the DNA collection would be subject to the same privacy laws applied to current DNA sampling. That means none of it would be used for identifying genetic traits, diseases or disorders. People who are not convicted can request the destruction of their DNA samples.

American Civil Liberties Union

The new regulation would mean that the federal government could store DNA samples of people who are not guilty of any crime, said Jesselyn McCurdy, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Now innocent people’s DNA will be put into this huge CODIS database, and it will be very difficult for them to get it out if they are not charged or convicted of a crime,” McCurdy said.

Thirteen States

The thirteen states which have enacted DNA laws are Alaska, Arizona, California, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Homeland Security?

The Homeland Security Department — the federal agency charged with policing immigration — supports the new rule. “DNA is a proven law-enforcement tool,” DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said.
The rule would not allow for DNA samples to be collected from immigrants who are legally in the United States or those being processed for admission, unless the person was arrested.

Micheal Chertoff needs to stay home
Homeland Security Secretary is headed by Michael Chertoff, who was recently in Canada discussing the Bush administration’s push to create stricter identity systems including the so-called “Server in the Sky” program to share fingerprint databases among the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia.
When asked about concerns some critics are raising over the privacy aspects of sharing of that kind of data, very personal data, among four countries is quite a scary thing. Secretary Chertoff replied, “Well, first of all, a fingerprint is hardly personal data because you leave it on glasses and silverware and articles all over the world, they’re like footprints. They’re not particularly private.”
Chertoff’s comments have drawn sharp criticism from Jennifer Stoddart, the Canadian official in charge of privacy issues. “Fingerprints constitute extremely personal information for which there is clearly a high expectation of privacy”.

Home of the FREE

There have been numerous questions raised about how this Administration is treating our personal information. Secretary Chertoff’s comments show a new reason to worry — they don’t think it’s “personal” at all. I wonder if they see DNA the same.

DO SOMETHING OR DO NOTHING
The law will soon be published in the Federal Register and will then be subject to a 30-day comment period.

On the Net:
State Laws on DNA Data Banks:

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/cj/dnadatabanks.htm

http://www.dnaresource.com/documents/2008DNAExpansionLegislation.pdf