New York should expand DNA database to fight crime

DNA analysis is a powerful tool for convicting the guilty and exonerating the innocent, but New York isn't maximizing its potential. That must change.

Right now, those convicted of roughly half the crimes on the books -- every felony but only 36 misdemeanors -- are required to submit DNA samples for the state databank. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has proposed expanding to an "all crimes database" by adding all remaining penal law misdemeanors, including offenses such as theft of services and prostitution. The proposal will be discussed today in the State Legislature's criminal justice budget hearings.

The state has been tiptoeing up to an all encompassing databank since it was created in 1994. The list of designated offenses requiring DNA samples was expanded in 1999, 2004, 2006 and 2010, and hits that match crimes to criminals increased. Privacy and security concerns have been effectively addressed, so the legislature should approve Cuomo's final step.

The databank enables officials to compare DNA from a crime scene to the DNA profiles of 400,000 offenders in New York, and those in banks nationally. It has helped finger perpetrators in about 10,000 crimes in New York, including 3,500 sexual assaults and 900 murders, officials said.

At first, there were concerns about privacy and the security of the database. But the law drew the right line by requiring DNA, collected by swabbing the inside of a cheek, only after a person has been convicted. The analysis provides only the subject's sex and unique identifying profile, not information subject to abuse, such as the presence of genetic diseases.

DNA profiles are kept separate from offenders' names. Officials pair a banked profile with a name from criminal history records only when there is a match with DNA from a crime scene.

Unauthorized use of the DNA data is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison. But officials from the state Divison of Criminal Justice Services said there have been no breaches. With that good record of security and effectiveness, New York should move now to maximize its use of what is arguably the greatest crime-fighting tool since fingerprints.