EFF Files Amicus Brief Challenging Orange County, CA's Controversial DNA Collection Program
Runaway1956 writes:
Should the government be allowed to collect your DNA-and retain it indefinitely-if you're arrested for a low-level offense like shoplifting a tube of lipstick, driving without a valid license, or walking your dog off leash? We don't think so. As we argue in an amicus brief filed in support of a case called Thompson v. Spitzer at the California Court of Appeal, this practice not only impinges on misdemeanor arrestees' privacy and liberty rights, but also violates the California Constitution.
Since 2007, the Orange County District Attorney's Office (OCDA) has been running an expansive program that coerces thousands of Orange County residents annually to provide a DNA sample in exchange for dropping charges for low-level misdemeanor offenses. Through the program, the OCDA has amassed a database of over 182,000 DNA profiles, larger than the DNA databases of 25 states. OCDA claims a right to indefinitely retain the DNA samples it collects and to share them with third parties who may use them in new and unknown ways in the future. Unlike state and federal arrestee DNA databases, OCDA does not allow anyone to have their DNA expunged from its database.
[...] The OCDA's DNA collection has serious implications for privacy and liberty, not just for the low-level arrestees who give up their DNA under the program, but also their biological relatives and wider communities. As the collection and analysis of DNA has become cheaper and more accessible over the past 30 years, law enforcement has pushed to collect more DNA, extract more information from DNA, and, through familial searching, use DNA to identify more and more people.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.