The number of cold-case crimes solved through the use of DNA is likely to jump in Colorado, regardless of whether Gov. Bill Ritter signs a bill that would authorize collection of DNA from people arrested on suspicion of committing felonies.
The FBI will soon begin taking DNA samples from people arrested for alleged federal felony criminal offenses and from suspected illegal immigrants.
By 2012, the FBI’s action alone could increase the number of samples added to the National DNA Index System from both state and federal sources to more than 1.3 million annually, Special Agent Ann Todd of the FBI said. The undertaking is so enormous that the FBI had to automate its DNA sample collection system and still must add capacity to the system, she said.
There already are 7 million DNA profiles in the system, including 260,000 from crime scenes.
More than 177,000 of the DNA profiles have come from 17 states that require people to submit samples upon their arrest, Todd said.
The FBI database has generated DNA matches in more than 86,000 criminal cases nationwide, Todd said. Colorado gets an average of about nine hits a week, according to data from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
That number is expected to go even higher if Ritter signs a bill that would dramatically increase the number of people required to provide DNA upon arrest.
Colorado’s law, which passed the legislature and awaits Ritter’s signature, requires everyone arrested on suspicion of a felony crime to submit a DNA sample. Samples are processed only if the suspect is formally charged, and destroyed if that never happens.
Civil-rights concerns
Critics argue that it’s a civil-rights infringement, with the potential for future, more intrusive privacy invasions.
“It merely makes a lie out of innocent until proven guilty,” said Kathryn Hazouri, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado. “It’s the presumption that if you are not guilty of a crime now, you will be sooner or later.”
The number of DNA samples taken in Colorado would increase by more than 23,000 annually, doubling the amount currently being added to the system at a cost of about $1 million a year after the first year.
“It prevents murders and rapes,” said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, who has been a leading proponent of increasing the number of people sampled. “If you catch someone the first time rather than the eighth time they rape or kill, there is a tremendous impact.”
Had Denver police been able to take DNA from Michael Lollis when he was arrested for forgery in February 2004, they might have stopped him from raping nine girls and women in 2004 and 2005 in Aurora, Denver and Arapahoe County, Morrissey said.
“We would have had a match after one or two of the assaults, and he would have been arrested,” Morrissey said.
Statistics from CBI show that as the number of samples in the database grows, so does the number of matches between crime-scene samples and DNA in the database. As DNA technology has improved, the percentage of samples in the database that prompted hits in Colorado also has risen, from 0.006 of 1 percent in 2001 to 1.9 percent last year.
Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said police have long taken fingerprints and photographs of suspects when they are arrested for identification purposes. The photographs remain on file even if the suspect is acquitted at trial or the charges are dropped, and can be used in photo lineups, for example. DNA would be treated the same way.
“We don’t see much difference between taking fingerprints and taking DNA evidence,” he said. “It’s non-testimonial evidence.”
Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said the technology also is useful in excluding people as suspects. That helps officers narrow their search for the real killer, Morrissey said.
But taking DNA samples from people who are not yet proven guilty assumes that they are guilty, Hazouri said. In many cases, DNA is not useful as evidence and it would be taken anyway, she said.
If someone is never formally charged or if they are found not guilty at trial, Colorado puts the onus on them to get their DNA evidence expunged, she said. It’s a convoluted process.
“Why not just test everyone?” Hazouri asked. “When you’re born, they’ll just swab your cheek and that will be it.”
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
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