Bill Would Allow Genetic Profiling Of Arrested Individuals

Big Brother wants your DNA.

DNA profiles from hundreds of thousands of juvenile offenders and adults arrested but not convicted of crimes could be added to the FBI's national DNA crime-fighting program under a proposed law moving through Congress.

The law, if enacted, would be the greatest single expansion of the federal government's power to collect and use DNA since the FBI's national database was created in 1992. The FBI says its national DNA database holds genetic profiles from about 1.4 million adults convicted of state and federal crimes.

This is some scary stuff.  If this bill was made into law, if you are merely arrested, not necessarily convicted, it would allow the FBI to hold onto your DNA in perpetuity.  Getting such a record expunged would be difficult, if not impossible.

Some, including the Bush Administration, equate this proposed database to the database of fingerprints that the FBI already maintains.  From a layman's standpoint, there is a difference:  it's a lot easier to "plant" DNA evidence than it is to plant fingerprints.  On top of that, who's to say that, at a later date, this database wouldn't be used in other ways, such as experimentally "probing" the genetic sequences of criminals to identify the genes that lead to criminal behavior.  Those are just two of the many possible objections.