Oklahoma jails have started collecting DNA samples from people arrested on felony charges in an attempt to solve more crimes.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation says 12 agencies have been trained to be part of the effort so far, and Oklahoma County jailers have started collecting DNA samples.
The process is authorized by Oklahoma law and similar programs have survived court challenges in other states, but it has a guilty-until-proven-innocent element that makes us uncomfortable.
The DNA is being collected from people who have not been convicted of anything. They are innocent in the eyes of the law, but Oklahoma Watch reports that the program’s policy is to keep the DNA in a national database until arrestees are exonerated in court and then removed it only if arrestees contact the OSBI and request expungement.
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What does an innocent person have to fear from a DNA sample, you may ask?
Identity theft comes to mind. DNA is identity at the most fundamental level. If the nation’s spy agencies can’t keep their computers secure from hackers do you think the OSBI can do it?
By the way, while a federal grant is paying for the program’s start-up costs, the state doesn’t have any money budgeted to sustain it. Any future state funding would mean less money for schools, roads or dealing with the overwhelming number of prisoners the state already has.
Here’s a better idea: Instead of looking for DNA crime evidence where we think it might be, why not look for it where we know it is. At last count, Oklahoma police agencies had DNA samples taken from some 7,000 rape cases that had never been tested.
We want dangerous criminals identified quickly, prosecuted and kept away from society, and police should use any legitimate weapon available in that effort; but the DNA collection program strikes us as inefficient, a poor use of resources and, frankly, a little un-American.