Should your DNA be collected, entered into state database when arrested, but not convicted? California Supreme Court …

DNA from those taken to local lockup once again is being run through a statewide database, as the California Supreme Court prepares to decide whether the mandatory collection of such genetic fingerprints should be limited to those actually convicted of a crime.

A quick swab inside the cheek has long been a routine part of the booking process at the county and larger city jails, with authorities hoping a positive hit in an electronic database will revitalize an investigation gone cold.

While few argue that convicted criminals have given up their right to keep their DNA private, civil liberties groups last year questioned why DNA should be taken from those who haven't had their day in court.

ACLU officials contend that the value of DNA evidence to law enforcement shouldn't override the expectation of privacy for those who haven't been proved to have broken the law.

A panel of California Court of Appeals judges shared those concerns, determining late last year that taking DNA from those suspected but not convicted of a crime is a violation of their constitutional rights.

"The history of DNA testing in the criminal justice system has been one of steady expansion - from initial testing of only offenders convicted of specified serious crimes of violence to testing of all felons and now to testing of arrestees," presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline wrote in the panel's published opinion.

Following the December appeals court ruling, officials at the city jails in Anaheim and Santa Ana temporarily stopped collecting DNA from arrestees. Orange County Sheriff's officials, who run the county jail system, still collected the DNA and sent it to the state lab, where workers held off on entering the genetic material into a DNA database.

Law enforcement officials say the decision in February by the California Supreme Court to take up the DNA collection debate means they once again can collect DNA from arrestees and put it in the DNA bank

"As a result of the California Supreme Court's grant of review of this decision, there is now no state precedent that precludes collection of DNA database samples from adult felony arrestees," California Department of Justice officials wrote in a recent bulletin to all state law enforcement agencies.

DNA collection is a massive endeavor, with the state's DNA bank connected to a nationwide index run by the FBI that includes more than 11 million offender profiles and 20 million arrestee profiles. Last year, the system had more than 300 hits tied to Orange County cases, although the exact number of cases closed as a result of that evidence isn't clear.

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Should your DNA be collected, entered into state database when arrested, but not convicted? California Supreme Court ...