Proposed law collects DNA with every felony arrests

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - A proposed bill in the Indiana statehouse would collect DNA samples from everyone who is arrested on a felony charge.

"To me, it's a matter of deterrence on crime. If an individual is arrested on a felony charge we will know who they are if they do something in the future," State Sen. Tom Wyss (R-Fort Wayne) said.

Wyss introduced Senate Bill 245 on Monday. The idea is to help police and prosecutors catch and convict criminals.

"I think it's a great idea," Fran Gull, Allen County Superior Court judge, said. "A small percentage of our population commits a vast majority of the crimes. We get frequent fliers who come through, so having information available to law enforcement could help them solve additional crimes that may have been perpetrated by these people we continue to see over and over again."

Currently, the Department of Corrections (D.O.C.) takes DNA samples from people convicted of certain crimes. That can miss some people who may not be sentenced to prison, but may offend again.

"You get a lot of folks who don't go to D.O.C. [because they have a] suspended sentence or probation," Gull said.

Gull recalled a case where blood was found at a burglary crime scene. Police didn't have any leads, but ran the DNA found at the scene against the current DNA database. A match was found. The burglar was already incarcerated for other charges, but the burglary case was solved. The proposed law changes, Gull said, would allow detectives to do the same kind of cross-reference, but the suspects wouldn't have to be convicted of another crime first to show up.

"It's another tool in the box for prosecutors and law enforcement to use to try to solve crimes that may go unsolved for decades because they don't know who did it," Gull said.

The way the bill's written now, if someone is found not guilty or the charges are dropped, he or she can ask to have the DNA sample removed from the database.

"If it's to be expunged, it will be taken out of database," Wyss stressed.

Police officers can take a DNA sample when someone's arrested with a simple cheek swab. Wyss said additional costs to a department should be minimal. But, the database in Indianapolis, which is run by the Indiana State Police, will need to be expanded.

If this bill becomes law, it's estimated the flow of DNA samples would increase by 50 percent. A database expansion would cost about a million dollars.

"A million dollars well-spent if it's taking serious criminals off the street and now we don't realize who they are because don't have a match on DNA," Wyss said.

Wyss added that people shouldn't worry about their DNA being on record.

"Even though we have DNA we can't tell anything about their health or anything else about them. We just acquire certain markers in the DNA," he said. "We take fingerprints and keep fingerprints. What's the difference of having DNA and fingerprints?"

If the bill becomes law, it would go into effect July 1, 2013. It will be heard in the Committee on Judiciary on January 23.