Academic

Genetic Surveillance: Crime Scene DNA Used To Hunt Down Offenders' Relatives

By Dan Filler

The LA Times reports today a story that reflects more of this "policing über alles" mentality I discussed in my last post.  It seems that previously liberal California Attorney General Jerry Brown now plans to sample DNA at crime scenes and, using "partial match" technology, find felons in the state's burgeoning DNA database who are related to the apparent offender.  Police will then target these relatives for interrogation.

For now, the public will feel reassured that the comparison set is exclusively felons.  But how long will that last?  Testing and disclosure of DNA is becoming much more commonplace - for transplant databases, among other things.  At some point, states may seek access to these data sets.  And how long will it be before the government collects DNA for use as the definitive identifier - for passports and drivers licenses, perhaps? 

Before the 1960's, the U.S. had comparatively lax protection for individual privacy but police had relatively limited capacities to invade it.  In the 1960's and 1970's, we reconsidered these policies, and adopted a more protective approach to the Fouth Amendment. Now, however, as the Warren Court legacy recedes into deep history and protections for privacy similarly fade, we discover that government has new tricks and technology up its sleeve.  Here are just three: implantable subcutaenous human tracking devices, thermal imaging heat emission searches, and DNA database searches. For now, the use of some of these technologies is legally constrained.  But we cannot assume the permanence of those protections.   Certainly not with Governor Moonbeam playing police chief.    

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on April 26, 2008 (boomark / email).