Convicted felons in Ohio will have to surrender their DNA beginning May 18.
The law, signed by Gov. Bob Taft in March, will supplement Ohio's database of 60,000 offenders with 100,000 more offenders. A felon is someone convicted of a serious crime.
The national DNA database already contains the original 60,000 offenders and will add the next 100,000. Each sample will cost between $30 and $35 to take and store, said Bob Beasley, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation spokesman. The bureau will pay for the process.
This database, run by the FBI, collects all DNA data from each individual state and consolidates them into one national database.
The larger number of samples you have in the database
the better chance you have that one will match up Beasley said.
When entered, the samples will be crosschecked with about 7,000 forensic samples of DNA from unsolved crimes. If any samples match up, the appropriate actions will be taken, Beasley said.
Sample collection in Ohio began in 1996 with the most serious felons, such as sex offenders and violent criminals. This law requires those convicted of first-degree misdemeanors to have samples taken and stored in the database, Beasley said.
This national database has aided more than 1,100 investigations in Ohio alone, according to the national database Web site.
Adding another large group of samples into the mix assists in solving crimes, Beasley said.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, said this bill was necessary because there are often offenders who commit small crimes and go on to commit more serious ones. If his or her DNA were on file, it could help solve a case, Latta said.
The DNA collection process is not complicated and is only a swabbing of the mouth, Latta said.
The Ohio American Civil Liberties Union, however, is not touting the law as a step forward because it is a violation of the 4th Amendment, said Ohio ACLU legal director Jeff Gamso.
This law is stupid and unconstitutional Gamso said.
The government does not need to have felons' DNA on file because few felonies use DNA as evidence. Before this law, DNA originally was taken from sex offenders and violent criminals, but many other felonies do not involve DNA, and it is unnecessary to take DNA from these persons, Gamso said.
Most people who commit felonies don't leave DNA
Gamso said. Also, the possibility of leaking this information is too high of a risk, he said.
Whatever (the government) collects
eventually everybody will know
Gamso said.
Third parties, such as insurance companies, could gain access of the information and use the DNA to deny coverage or to raise rates, Gamso said.
However, the collection of DNA is not much different from what is available today. Anyone can use a computer to research names of felons on the Internet and law enforcement keeps fingerprints on record, stored in a database similar to the DNA database, Latta said.
For decades
everyone's been fingerprinted
Latta said. This is just one more tool for law enforcement.
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