Lawsuit accuses NYPD of secretly building 'rogue' DNA database

Monique Beals
The Hill
Tue, 22 Mar 2022 04:22 UTC

© New York Post

A lawsuit filed Monday accuses the New York Police Department (NYPD) of collecting genetic materials from thousands of citizens in a secret attempt to create a "rogue" DNA database.

Legal Aid Society, in a post on social media announcing the federal lawsuit, said:

"For decades, the NYPD has used dishonest tactics to obtain New Yorkers' DNA, including those as young as 11-years-old, by offering bottles of water or cigarettes to our clients detained at local precincts."

The organization accused the NYPD:

"of keeping citizens' DNA permanently stored in a rogue local database," saying it "continuously compares past and future crime scene DNA evidence against this database, which has led to wrongful arrests and prosecutions."

The NYPD has previously said it would review its DNA database after discreetly collecting thousands of the samples, according to CBS News. But the Legal Aid Society said in its post that the database "only continues to grow."

The lawsuit names the city, top police officials and the city's chief medical examiner as defendants. Nicholas Paolucci, a city law department spokesperson, said the city would review the lawsuit. NYPD Sgt. Edward Riley said in a statement to CBS:

"The NYPD's investigations and tactics, including the collection of DNA, are guided by what is authorized by the law, the wealth of case law from the courts, and the best practices of the law enforcement community."

The chief medical officer's office also voiced support of the database in a statement, according to the outlet:

"The local DNA database complies with all applicable laws and is managed and used in accordance with the highest scientific standards set by independent accrediting bodies that have regularly reapproved the existence of the database."

The Hill has reached out to the city, police department and medical examiner's office for comment.

Comment: Is it a crime deterrent, invasion of privacy or gross overreach?

This increase in police authority was part of a broader and ongoing trend in the U.S., where DNA databases have expanded to include incrementally less severe crimes at different rates across state jurisdictions. Studies show larger databases do not correlate to a more efficient crime fighting tool, and can even lead to increased margins of error.

In 2013, President Obama signed into law a bill to provide federal funding for states to implement DNA collection programs for people arrested for serious crimes.

Beyond the question of effectiveness, as forensic DNA databases have expanded across the U.S., there has been an ongoing legal debate about whether such surveillance techniques violate a constitutional right to privacy.

Taking DNA samples was "like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment." However, Antonin Scalia, argued that using DNA in "cold hit" searches was an unconstitutional invasion of privacy that eroded the presumption of innocence.

Local governments, like NYC, maintain unregulated DNA indexes that include people who have never been convicted, and might not have even been arrested, for a crime."