Face the State Staff Report
During legislative testimony, law enforcement officials went head-to-head with criminal defense attorneys over whether Colorado should allow for the collection of DNA upon an arrest for a suspected felony crime.
The debate over Senate Bill 241 came in the House Judiciary Committee Thursday. The legislation was fast-tracked through the Senate in late April and if the bill is passed before the legislative session ends next week, anyone accused of a felony crime will have his or her DNA collected by the arresting officer and entered into state and federal databases. If found to be wrongly accused or innocent, the data could be expunged from the system. A major sticking point: the bill's language stipulates that removing the data upon acquittal, dropped charges, or proof of innocence, would become the responsibility of the accused.
Testifying in support of the bill were various members of Colorado's law enforcement community, including Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates.
"We believe this is very smart legislation and is long overdue," said Oates. "Felons who commit horrible crimes also commit all kinds of property crimes, and these are the arrests and the moments of opportunity to take DNA and maximize the potential of modern science."
Pam Shaner of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation testified about the methods for receiving, storing and tracking DNA.
According to Shaner, once the CBI receives a DNA sample, it is assigned a bar code and tracking number, which is kept in a separate database from the accused's name, age or other identifications. Computer software designed to check DNA collected at a crime scene against submitted samples is run only against the bar code numbers, Shaner said, but not against a suspect's name or social security number.
The bill's critics believe that it lacks the safeguards necessary to ensure a DNA sample would actually be expunged from government records. Furthermore, there is no provision in the bill to prevent a sample of DNA from being run against DNA in the unsolved crimes database while a suspect, whether innocent or guilty, awaits trial. Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA as it is commonly known, is a human blueprint of specific genetic information unique to each individual. It can be removed with a simple swabbing of skin and is often found at crime scenes.
Testifying in opposition to the bill was Maureen Cain of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, who cited potential 4th Amendment concerns as a reason to vote against the bill. According to Cain and the ACLU, which also opposes the bill, taking DNA upon arrest may constitute an illegal search and seizure.
"It's possible that cases could be dismissed due to an unconstitutional law," said Cain. "The purpose of this bill is not to identify for the current crime, but on past or future crimes."
The bill has been highly contested thus far, with Senate Republicans divided on the issue.
As Face The State reported earlier this week, state Sen. Bill Cadman, R-Colo. Springs, shares concerns similar to Cain's, arguing that the bill's provisions don't provide enough clarity about how data will be expunged. "It ll probably be some bureaucracy where you request it, provide more information to CBI, and then frankly, you will have virtually no proof that it is done," he told Face The State Monday. "Plus, there is no provision requiring the federal government to remove it."
Testimony on the bill in the House Judiciary Committee lasted for over six hours, with the committee ultimately voting 8-3 to send the bill to the House Appropriations Committee, which Friday advanced it to the full House for consideration this week.