H.R. 4614 06/02

     Or I thought we at least tried to learn from the mistakes and failures of other countries. H.R. 4614, or the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2010, rolls back personal security and privacy from state police agencies. Another step towards the judiciary program the UK had, which it gave up after being determined to be too intrusive of UK citizens’ rights to privacy.
     If you are not familiar with this act understand what has been voted through the House, 357 votes to 34, is not going to make us at home any more secure from criminals. What it affords police agencies, license and without warrant, is that when a suspect is arrested for at least one serious offense that the suspect’s DNA will be taken, by force if necessary, and added to the national database. The stress though is on being arrested, and not convicted. The case and argument has been made that as a convicted felon has forfeited certain rights, but this legislation inverses the nature of innocent until proven guilty.
     The reason from Representative Harry Teague, 
     “We should allow law enforcement to use all the technology available to them...to reduce expensive and unjust false convictions, bring closure to victims by solving cold cases, better identify criminals, and keep those who commit violent crime from walking the streets.”
     Unfortunately he doesn’t mention that these tools are effective at eliminating suspects, which does not need a database to begin with. Advocates for these databases lie and mislead information about false positives, typically due to the amount of information stored (generally thirteen loci). The reason for the false positives is the sheer amount of people kept on catalogue and the number of samples being run against it will generate false positives. Men in the UK have suffered prison terms because these advocates parrot the odds of multiple millions to one.
     So what is the incentive for your state and local police agency to use these gifts, there is an expense to this right? Other than more power and control of course, but money, federal funding to the tune of $75 million to fund state and local law enforcement agencies. Not only that but states that choose not to participate will lose five percent federal funding. And of course it does not take an economist to understand in the current financial environment, for state governments they can use the additional law enforcement funds and most states cannot survive losing federal funds without serious cuts to other civil services.
      This new legislation is not a radical step to violate our protected privacy and security rights, but a gradual slide our rights have been sloping down. Starting with the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000, H.R. 4640. This act required that DNA samples to be taken from anyone convicted of or put on probation for certain serious crimes. Appeals that this violated both Fourth and Fifth Amendments were denied and the act was held as constitutional. In 2006 H.R. 3402, Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005, set the precedent that any federal police agency may collect DNA samples from an individual arrested but not yet convicted. Finally we come to May 2009, a federal judge in California, Magistrate Gregory Hollows, concluded that state agencies did not commit any unreasonable search or seizure by taking DNA samples of felony arrestees.
      And as we have seen already, the government is at war with our constitutional rights and protections. Over the last fifteen years it has taken inches away at our privacy and eroded probable and reasonable protections. At a point we must stop sending congress people to D.C. that are not interested in protecting our civil freedoms and liberties.