From: "Mark A. Smith" <msmith01@flash.net> Subject: SNET: NYC's top cop to outline DNA plan: Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 18:25:12 -0500 To: Maureen <myfirst@tricor.net>, SNET <snetnews@world.std.com>, L & J <liberty-and-justice@mailbox.by.net>, David Rydel <eagleflt@bignet.net> -> SNETNEWS Mailing List This From: Electric Times Union (Albany, NY), December 14, 1998 http://www.timesunion.com NYC's top cop to outline DNA plan: Proposal aims to use sampling as a strategy against repeat offenders http://www.timesunion.com/news/story.asp?storyKey=2960&newsdate=12/14/98 By RICHARD PYLE Associated Press NEW YORK -- Police Commissioner Howard Safir is going public with his proposal for New York City police to take a DNA sampling along with the fingerprints of everyone arrested -- a proposal already drawing fire from civil libertarians. Safir planned a speech at a Bronx high school today to formally outline his plan as a strategy against repeat offenders -- especially burglars, auto thieves and other specialists in property crimes. "I'm asking myself how am I going to continue to reduce crime,'' Safir told The New York Times in an interview. Crime in New York City has dropped by 50 percent in the last five years. The murder rate alone has fallen 20 percent from a year ago and is expected to finish the year at the lowest level since the early 1960s. Under Safir's plan, the police would take a swabbing from inside the suspect's cheek, a standard method of collecting DNA, and put it into a database for future reference. DNA is the unique genetic blueprint of each person, said by legal and forensic experts to be as reliable as fingerprints and far more useful in identifying individuals responsible for certain types of crime. Safir's plan would require action by the state Legislature to expand the circumstances under which DNA samples could be taken from criminal suspects. At present, New York state allows testing of felons convicted of 21 types of violent crime, including murder, rape and manslaughter. All other states have some form of database of DNA taken from felons, and last October, the FBI set up a long-discussed national DNA database beginning with 250,000 names, linked to state-maintained databases. Only Louisiana tests every person arrested for DNA, as Safir suggests for New York City. The genetic profile technology became widely known during the O.J. Simpson trial and has been used increasingly in law enforcement, both to identify criminals and to exonerate individuals falsely accused or convicted. Norman Siegel, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, has objected to the proposal, contending that arrest is not sufficient grounds for authorities to collect personal genetic information, and would violate the Forth Amendment safeguard against unreasonable search and seizure. Involuntary testing for DNA has been challenged legally by several members of the armed forces and a group of women on California's death row. Copyright 1998, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y. --------------------------------NOTICE:------------------------------ ISPI Clips are news & opinion articles on privacy issues from all points of view; they are clipped from local, national and international newspapers, journals and magazines, etc. Inclusion as an ISPI Clip does not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the content or opinion by ISPI. 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