State looks into having DNA of suspects checked at county level
Despite a law passed two years ago that mandates DNA testing of felony suspects who are arrested, Oklahoma has not yet fully implemented the plan because of a lack of funding.
The tests are meant to compare genetic markers with samples gleaned from evidence in a federal database, so that the unknown perpetrator of a crime in one jurisdiction or state can be discovered if they are arrested and booked by law enforcement elsewhere.
A bill passed in 2016 mandated the collection of DNA on any adult arrested for a felony-level crime, but it also made the practice “subject to the availability of funds.”
Lawmakers never funded it, however.
State Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa, hopes to reinvigorate the program by sending DNA collection to the county level.
That way, when a person is booked into a county jail, local officials can collect a cheek swab and run it against the federal database that day rather than send the sample to one state office for testing, which could take 10 days.
Doing so would require an act of the Legislature.
Bush held an interim study Tuesday and invited Terry Simonson, Tulsa County government affairs director, to speak about a new process known as Rapid DNA that will ease the transition to county jail collection and testing.
The federal government has approved the use of DNA testing at the local and county level, using machines that analyze samples collected via cheek swabs and compare the results to the national database.
The goal is to learn if felony suspects in Oklahoma jails match DNA with evidence left at unsolved crimes.
Like other efforts to collect DNA from crime suspects, however, there could be opposition. Simonson fielded questions from House Public Safety Chairman Bobby Cleveland, R-Slaughterville, that drew on privacy concerns and the collection of DNA from someone who might be innocent.
“How do we know you’re not sending it to the FBI?” Cleveland asked.
Simonson replied that the booking officer would dispose of DNA samples, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would develop protocols for how to handle it.
“You do have people that believe in the Constitution. In this country they believe you should not be swabbed if you haven’t committed a crime, just because you are arrested,” Cleveland said.
The issue has been settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, Simonson replied, noting that the FBI’s Rapid DNA procedure was developed based on their rulings.
“They balanced out the government’s interest, and the private interest, and they said that’s hardly an invasion of privacy,” he said.
State Rep. Ross Ford, R-Broken Arrow, said that after serving more than two decades as a Tulsa police officer, he would welcome the ability to find out if suspected felons were wanted for other heinous crimes.
“I guarantee you there have been people booked into our county jails throughout this state that are wanted for crimes in other states that we have booked in, processed them through and released them,” Ford said.