DENVER—The Colorado Senate has passed a bill requiring anyone arrested for a felony to submit a DNA sample.
Senate Bill 241 passed by a vote of 28-7 Monday and now goes to the House.
Currently, only people who are convicted of crimes must submit DNA.
Backers say testing people at the time of arrest will help catch criminals and save lives by running the DNA against evidence from other cases.
But opponents say it blurs the line between accusation and conviction and that DNA information from innocent people shouldn’t be put in a criminal database.
Democratic Sen. John Morse said only 13 of the millions of DNA markers available will be recorded in the database for each person. People who aren’t charged can ask for their record to be removed.
