DNA collectionMaryland police defy court decision, continue to collect arrestees DNA

Police departments around Maryland will continue to collect arrestees DNA despite the state top court’s ruling by a five-to-two decision that such collection is a violation of Fourth Amendment rights to privacy.

Several law enforcement agencies are awaiting a decision to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court before they make changes to their procedures.

Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, Baltimore’s mayor, and a host of state officials have called for the state to appeal the court’s decision in order to avoid losing what they consider to be a crucial tool that has linked suspects to other, unsolved crimes. O’Malley was joined by Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, and others in pressing the state’s attorney general, Douglas Gansler, in filing a challenge to the state court’s ruling before the U.S. Supreme Court.

It remained unclear what will happen to the nearly 16,000 samples already collected in a database, although a public defender said suspects whose DNA has been compiled may be able to take court action to get the samples destroyed.

The court had ruled that the taking of DNA samples violated the right of a suspect to be free of unreasonable search and seizure, though it left open the right of law enforcement to take DNA samples at arrest to verify a suspect’s identity.

The collection of DNA at arrest has been the subject of national debate, with opponents pointing out that it takes place before a suspect is tried in court. Twenty-six states have laws similar to Maryland’s, and many have been upheld in state and federal court.

Opponents of the process maintain that the continuation of DNA sampling shows disregard for the law and the courts. Criminal defense attorney Ivan Bates believes that any DNA evidence collected after the court’s decision will be thrown out as evidence because it was illegally obtained.

“I think the U.S.Supreme Court would rule in a similar fashion,” Bates said. “You have to have a warrant, point blank, end of discussion. Before you take my DNA, you have to have a warrant for that as well. You have a lot of innocent people who are constantly being violated.”

In the three years that the law, a signature O’Malley initiative, the DNA samples have been cross-checked against cold case evidence, leading to sixty-five arrests and thirty-four convictions, according to data released by the governor’s office.

Colonel Marcus J. Brown, superintendent of the Maryland State Police, said that the case has helped to take several violent criminals off the streets.

“When courts fail to recognize the need of our people to be protected in a fair and just manner, we go backwards, not forwards,” Brown said in a statement. “That is something we cannot afford to do, given our responsibility to protect human life.”