US POLICE AGENCIES WITH THEIR OWN DNA DATABASES STIR DEBATE

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Mar 4, 1:48 PM EST

US POLICE AGENCIES WITH THEIR OWN DNA DATABASES STIR DEBATE
BY MICHAEL BALSAMO
ASSOCIATED PRESS


LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Dozens of police departments around the U.S. are amassing their own DNA databases to track criminals, a move critics say is a way around regulations governing state and national databases that restrict who can provide genetic samples and how long that information is held.

The local agencies create the rules for their databases, in some cases allowing samples to be taken from children or from people never arrested for a crime. Police chiefs say having their own collections helps them solve cases faster because they can avoid the backlogs that plague state and federal repositories.

Frederick Harran, the public safety director in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania, was an early adopter of a local database. Since it was created in 2010, he said robberies and burglaries have been gone down due to arrests made because of the DNA collection.

Harran said the Pennsylvania state lab takes up to 18 months to process DNA taken from a burglary scene but with the local database authorities go through a private lab and get results within a month. He said he uses money from assets seized from criminals to pay for the private lab work.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DNA_DATABASES_CTOL-?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-04-13-48-44

[ToxMarz]

1. Is there any doubt where all that DNA ancestry dot com is collecting

just because "gee won't it be neat to know where we come from" is going to end up (if it has not already).

[HockeyMom]

2. Decades ago, Rudy wanted to put every Newborn's DNA

in a database. You can guess what happened to that idea. BTW,I've been going genealogy the old fashioned way for over 40 years. I would never give anybody my DNA to trace my ancestors,

[Sunlei]

9. you're missing something wonderful. many times paper family records leave out reality of who

you really are.

[HockeyMom]

17. No Ancestry,com would ever tell me

about my Great-Grandfather's "Illegitimate Son" who was raised in a Boy's Home in England and was reunited with his Father, his Wife, and Half Siblings as an Adult in England, came to America, and became a part of their family here. Paper trails, and family word of mouth, did that.

Did I also mention that my paper trails, and help of genealogists across the pond, got me birth and death records there? My British search has gotten me back to the Norman Conquest and learning far more history in the process than I ever learned in school, Not getting into learning to decipher Old English script.

You can double that with tracing my husband's German roots, with the help of a German "cousin" there translating old German records. The search and what you learn is far better, and more personal, than an instant DNA Ancestry.co.

[Sunlei]

19. true lots of paper records in most enlightened societies but those just cover a couple hundred years

And paper records & oral history can be generations of lies.

I think DNA scares people, like science scares some people. Some segments of society won't ever believe humanity walked out of Africa together.

The Norman Conquest! how much Neanderthal blood IMO, shows how much 'conquesting' a persons ancestors actually did thousands & thousands of years before that more recent history.

[ret5hd]

3. Has ANYONE here had DNA collected when they had a burglary???

In mty experience no one even botheres to take fingerprints, much less DNA.

Really, it seems like they thinkyou're being a major pain in the ass just for trying to get a police report so you can file an insurance claim.

Maybe there is a certain group of people that get the "platinum service".

[Sunlei]

10. rapes and murders to name a couple crimes, DNA can make the difference.

not me but friends close to me had murderer caught/convicted with DNA evidence.

sorry about your burglary loss.

[ret5hd]

11. Rape and murder are kinda an order of magnitude (or three) above burglary.

[Sunlei]

12. probably thousands of orders higher to loss of material items.

[ret5hd]

13. My point was this quote from the OP:

Harran said the Pennsylvania state lab takes up to 18 months to process DNA taken from a burglary scene but with the local database authorities go through a private lab and get results within a month.

[Sunlei]

14. 18 months is to long for a DNA test. looks like Pa State lab needs that "seized cash" instead of

some local pa. wealthy police department.

[ret5hd]

15. I think we are talking past each other.

My point is neither I nor anyone I know has ever had DNA taken from a burglary crime scene. I may be wrong. Maybe somebody here has had or know of this happening. I am willing to be corrected.

Therefor, I am stating Frederick Harran, the public safety director in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania is full of shit. There may be some reason/logic that local PD's need/want a DNA database, but burglaries ain't one of them!

[Sunlei]

16. Local pa. police department probably wants to plant 'evidence' on some local people they don't 'like

is probably the reason OR else local police department is so flush with "seizure cash" they're looking for ways to spend the 'free cash' bonanza locally on some local scam Lab'

/s because there's a lot of corruption in Pa. local police departments and I don't trust them to 'spend' seized cash by the books.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. First question I would ask as a defense layer

would be if their dna collection, analyzing and storage met Federal guidelines.

I can tell you from experience that Breathalyzer results often are thrown out of court when a smart attorney starts asking about the calibration and maintenance of the equipment. They used to be......maybe still are...required to be certified they worked properly a couple times a year....with paperwork signed by the company that checked them.

all sorts of questions can be asked about dna tests, same principle.

[Thor_MN]

7. Breathalyzers also will read high if not at room temperature

My nephew blew a lethally high number when the house party he was at was raided. He was the first person checked after the police pulled the unit out of their car trunk in sub-freezing temps. He questioned the number when he had to go to court, but the judge pointed out that he was being charged with underage drinking not DUI. He paid the fine.

[Yavin4]

5. Okay, so criminals knowing this will carry with them a vial of blood, semen, sweat, or whatever of..

someone else's DNA to a crime. Thus, making the police's DNA look invalid.

(Actually saw this on a TV show.)

[Judi Lynn]

18. You have to wonder about TV series writers and producers who reveal ways to beat the system.

It's not as if there aren't enough opportunities to do evil without their help!

Thanks for your post. It's a new on to me.

[customerserviceguy]

6. And this is different from police agencies keeping fingerprints in what way?

I keep seeing how DNA is freeing people wrongly accused of crimes. Wouldn't the other edge of the sword also be to nail perpetrators who leave DNA at the scene of a crime they committed?

[Sunlei]

8. "uses money from assets seized" HEY MR TRUMP here are seized billions & billions locals don't share

Mr Trump- seized billions by LOCAL police should go to Federal government for equal disbursement across America.

The DNA criminal database should be National/Federal not 100s of Local databases.

@potus, @WhiteHouse, if fox&friends & brebart can feed 'ideas' to Donald so can I.