DNA DATABASE OPEN
WASHINGTON--Beginning today, the nation's police
will be able to use a national computer system to
match DNA evidence from convicted felons with
that collected in unsolved crimes.
Jan S. Bashinski, the primary developer of
California's DNA database, which began operating
in 1992, said the FBI's new crime-fighting tool
could reduce the number of sex crimes and make it
harder for criminals to evade authorities by
crossing state lines.
"It's going to allow DNA to achieve its full
potential," said Dwight Adams, chief of the
FBI Laboratory's scientific analysis section.
Currently the FBI computer holds DNA profiles of
250,000 convicted felons and genetic evidence
recovered from the scenes of 4,600 unsolved
cases. The new federal system still has some
wrinkles to iron out--eight states have not
started to collect samples from their felons, for
example--and a criminal defense lawyers'
association lamented that the process creates
"a big brother atmosphere." But a pilot
effort involving California and seven other
states has solved about 200 cases since last
December, indicating that the nationwide program
has great promise, experts said.
DNA, a person's genetic fingerprint, is left at
crime scenes in the form of blood, hair, skin
cells, semen or other matter. DNA databases work
by matching the DNA profile collected from crime
sites and victims to DNA samples taken from
felons, crime suspects and the scenes of other
unsolved crimes. The states have taken samples
from another 350,000 convicted felons but have
not yet analyzed and entered them in the FBI's
computer database, reflecting what Adams called a
backlog problem. While all 50 states have enacted
laws authorizing officials to take blood samples
of some convicted felons to obtain their DNA
profiles, Maine, Vermont, Mississippi, Wyoming,
Alabama, Ohio, New Mexico and Utah have not begun
collecting the samples, Adams said.
The federal government has not authorized the
collection of DNA samples from federal felons.
Adams said the wording of the 1994 DNA
Identification Act falls short of creating such
authority, and Congress has not acted on measures
proposed to correct that. With Congress on the
verge of adjournment, such action is unlikely
before next year, he added. With most crimes
investigated and prosecuted by state and local
authorities, however, the effect of adding
federal felons to the sampling would be limited.
If the federal crimes covered by the DNA sampling
authorization were limited to violent and sexual
offenses, the additional DNA profiles would
number "a few thousand," Adams
estimated.
Jack King, spokesman for the National Assn. of
Criminal Defense Lawyers, raised privacy concerns
about the new system. "Without a reasonable,
articulable suspicion, a person's privacy should
not be invaded by taking a DNA sample. It creates
a kind of big brother atmosphere," said
King, whose group has been critical of the FBI's
DNA-collection efforts.
While some states collect DNA samples from all
felons, including white-collar violators,
California collects DNA only from persons
convicted of sexual offenses or violent crimes,
according to Bashinski, chief of forensic
services for the California Department of Justice
in Sacramento. The California law also restricts
the state's use of DNA information.
"We must maintain confidentiality of the
information and only use it for law enforcement
purposes," Bashinski said. "It cannot
be used for medical testing or other
reasons." The California database, one of
the nation's leading systems, has collected
100,000 samples from the blood and saliva of
convicted sex offenders and persons convicted of
such violent crimes as murder, assault and
kidnapping.
More than 40,000 California samples have been
analyzed, cataloged and forwarded to the FBI,
leaving a backlog of about 60,000, according to
department spokesman Mike Van Winkle. "About
14,000 [samples] are collected each year, but
thanks to automation we now are analyzing 20,000
to 30,000 a year, so we're gaining on the
backlog," Van Winkle said. Samples once were
taken from state inmates as they were released
into their communities. "But some of these
guys had served many years in prison, so we
decided why wait. We might solve crimes while
they were still serving time, so we started
obtaining the samples as they entered," Van
Winkle added.
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