Justice groups sue state over retaining DNA
Comparing DNA evidence to a national database of offenders has become an increasingly powerful crime-solving tool, but the practice has spurred an evolving debate over who belongs in this massive network of potential suspects.
For police and prosecutors, a bigger database is a better one. But in the latest challenge, a pair of social justice groups on Monday sued the California Department of Justice over the state’s requirement that authorities collect and keep the DNA profile of anyone arrested for a felony, regardless of whether the person is convicted.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, argues that such blanket retention of DNA in a national criminal index violates the
state Constitution’s privacy protections.
“Our DNA contains our entire genetic makeup — private and intensely personal information that maps who we are and where we come from,” said Jamie Lee Williams, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “The state’s failure to automatically expunge DNA samples and profiles from the hundreds of thousands of Californians who were not ultimately convicted of a crime is unconstitutional.”
The suit follows a state Supreme Court decision in April rejecting the argument that DNA collection violates Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Moreover, the new challenge underscores growing tension between privacy advocates and law enforcement as DNA matching and other technologies like facial recognition rapidly develop.
Under a state law passed as Proposition 69 in 2004, authorities are required to collect DNA from anyone arrested for a felony. The genetic profile, collected with a swab of the inside of a person’s cheek during jail booking, is uploaded into the national Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS.
The system has revolutionized criminal investigations, allowing police around the country to exchange information, generate leads and link crimes to known offenders.
The plaintiffs in Monday’s lawsuit — the Center for Genetics and Society and the Equal Justice Society — argue that California’s policy of retaining DNA from felony suspects is not only too broad but reinforces racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
“The over-expansion of the CODIS database and California’s failure to promptly expunge profiles of innocent arrestees exploits and reinforces systemic racial and socioeconomic biases,” said Lisa Holder, Equal Justice Society’s interim legal director. “We want the court to recognize that California’s DNA collection and retention practices are unfairly putting already vulnerable poor communities of people of color at even greater risk of racial profiling and law enforcement abuse.”
State law allows people who were not convicted of a felony to apply to have their genetic information expunged from the system. However, advocates argue the process is difficult and that many people don’t know it exists.
Of 750,000 DNA profiles collected in the last decade that are eligible to be removed, only 1,510 requests have been made for expungement, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The group said 1,282 were granted.
The case that led the California Supreme Court to uphold the state’s DNA collection act in April involved defendant Mark Buza, who was arrested in San Francisco in 2009 on suspicion of arson and other charges but refused to give a DNA sample.
He was later convicted of arson as well as a misdemeanor for refusing to provide his DNA. An appeals court reversed the refusal charge on grounds that it violated Buza’s rights under the Fourth Amendment. But the state Supreme Court voted 4-3 to uphold the original conviction. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle. com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky