Vast DNA Bank Pits Policing Vs. Privacy

[Rose Siding]

Brimming with the genetic patterns of more than 3 million Americans, the nation's databank of DNA "fingerprints" is growing by more than 80,000 people every month, giving police an unprecedented crime-fighting tool but prompting warnings that the expansion threatens constitutional privacy protections.

With little public debate, state and federal rules for cataloging DNA have broadened in recent years to include not only violent felons, as was originally the case, but also perpetrators of minor crimes and even people who have been arrested but not convicted.

Now some in law enforcement are calling for a national registry of every American's DNA profile, against which police could instantly compare crime-scene specimens. Advocates say the system would dissuade many would-be criminals and help capture the rest.

"This is the single best way to catch bad guys and keep them off the street," said Chris Asplen, a lawyer with the Washington firm Smith Alling Lane and former executive director of the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence. "When it's applied to everybody, it is fair, and frankly you wouldn't even know it was going on."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201648.html

[sutz12]

1. Well, they did it with fingerprints....

I suppose this is next. :shrug:

[NoodleyAppendage]

2. "...frankly you wouldn't even know it was going on." EXACTLY, dumbsh*t.

Who's WATCHING THE WATCHERS.

Our democracy DEMANDS transparency and oversight at all levels, particularly when their is a MAJOR PUSH for Big Brother overlordship at the hands of the neofascists.

J

[nebenaube]

3. Eugenics Wins

Finger prints may identify you but DNA defines you. At times, it appears that the followers of eugenics are still in play these days... Who knows what will happen when science finishes reverse-engineering the language of DNA* and then evil people acquire control of the technology? The synthesis of "genetically tagged" (read targeted) viri will become very very tempting to their ilk. Armed with such selective weaponry, the social engineers working to modify reproductive rights and sexual behavior this country may start grooming the masses for desirable traits. This simply is too much of a pandora's box to open.


*( and it's not that cryptic in fact its not really unlike the object oriented paradigm )

ps. (psst... don't drop a fingernail clipping in a high crime area!)

[pooja]

4. imagine is insurance companies can access this

they could choose not to cover a person because of a preexisting condition. This is a little scarier than dental records and fingerprints. but it has been going on for a while... we all watch csi.

[suffragette]

5. Goodbye "innocent until proven guilty"

Hello "guilty until proven innocent"

This would be a major shift in that direction.


But opponents say that the growing use of DNA scans is making suspects out of many law-abiding Americans and turning the "innocent until proven guilty" maxim on its head.

"These databases are starting to look more like a surveillance tool than a tool for criminal investigation," said Tania Simoncelli of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.


Is that a shift we really want to allow? That you are a suspect until you consent to have your DNA taken and processed. And that once that is done, the DNA will be banked for re-screening, again without probable cause but just for being in the area or related to someone who was in the area, whenever they decide.


And what else will be done with the genetic information, who will have access, and what privacy controls, if any will there be?
We've all seen that databases are not being secured. Look at the Choicepoint and VA "losses" of sensitive information.

And like the concurrent attempts to go after internet rights and privacy, this very broad attempt to catalog us all is being pursued under the excuse of protecting the children, I'm guessing they have decided that anything they introduce using that meme has a stronger chance of being passed, since who wants to be accused of standing in the way of "protecting children."

From the end of the article:

While the debate goes on, some in Congress are working to expand the database a bit more. In March, the House passed the Children's Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act.

Under the broad-ranging bill, DNA profiles provided voluntarily, for example, in a dragnet, would for the first time become a permanent part of the national database. People arrested would lose the right to expunge their samples if they were exonerated or charges were dropped. And the government could take DNA from citizens not arrested but simply detained.

The article notes the House bill will need to be reconciled with the Senate bill, which does not have these provisions. So, this is already halfway toward becoming legislation.

[salin]

6. gives more meaning to a nanny state from birth to grave:

"We already take blood from every newborn to perform government-mandated tests . . . so the right to take a sample has already been decided," Asplen said. "And we have a precedent for the government to maintain an identifying number of a person."

Frightening stuff, if you ask me.

[Zorra]

7. My DNA is my property. If someone tried to take it, I would defend

my property.

Somebody could get their kneecap blown off.

[jsamuel]

8. So all you would have to do to set someone up is spray some of their blood

around.