‘GENETIC STOP-FRISK’ Move to cut 20,000 from NYPD DNA list
The chief medical examiner has given the NYPD a list of about 20,000 DNA profiles that could be dropped from a much-criticized and ever-growing city database, the Daily News has learned.
The revelation comes amid continued attacks from civil liberties advocates over how the NYPD obtains DNA, particularly from juveniles, and how long those forensic profiles are kept, even in cases where there are no criminal charges.
Critics have accused police of violating the privacy rights of the innocent and want the database to be merged with the more tightly regulated state database. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea in February said the department would review and overhaul its DNA policy.
At the time, the plan was to audit the approximate 32,000 DNA samples from suspects, about half of which were taken on the sly — like keeping a cup of water a suspect drank during questioning.
About 8,000 came from suspects who weren’t convicted of a crime, according to testimony at a City Council hearing — and a 20% chunk of those were from juveniles.
In March, the medical examiner’s office, which maintains the database, known as the Local DNA Index System, gave cops a list of about 20,000 profiles from its 32,000 cache, according to a Sept. 3 letter, The News has learned.
The NYPD reviewed it and “has identified profiles for removal,” according to the letter from Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson to the Legal Aid Society — which has advocated for ending what it derides as the “rogue DNA index” and for progress reports on the removal process.
It’s still not clear how many of those profiles the NYPD agrees ought to be dropped, its objection to axing others and when it’ll more fully respond to the medical examiner’s office.
Terri Rosenblatt, who heads Legal Aid’s DNA unit, said the database is now nearing 34,000 samples. She blasts the city for dragging its feet — and asserts only legislation will end the “genetic stop and frisk.”
“All of these people are at risk for wrongful DNA matches, invasive testing and sharing of their genetic information with other law enforcement agencies, including, potentially, ICE,” she added, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In her letter, Sampson stated her office has taken steps to ensure anyone whose DNA profile is going to be removed isn’t linked to any new investigation.
And she said only three people out of 22 who wanted to know if they were in the database were told they were on the list.
Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens), chairman of the Public Safety Committee, bbelieves changing the way the NYPDdealswithDNAhastobe leegislated.
“We can’t expect the fox to guard the henhouse,” he said. “We know for a fact there are thousands of individuals in this database who have not been convicted of a crime.
“Their DNA has been stolen,” hhe said.
Richards also believes most people in the database are Black or Hispanic.
In her letter, Sampson said the demographic information of those in the database isn’t known. Police sources and the Legal Aid Society say when cops recover DNA and give it to the medical examiner’s office for analysis, the age, sex and race of the person are listed.
“The NYPD and [medical examiner’s office] have been working together a slate of reforms to the DNA database toward the shared mission of fairness in the criminal justice system while also ensuring the ability to solve crimes and bring justice for victims,” a spokesman for the NYPD said Tuesday. “This work is ongoing.