Police Use DHS Machines To Create Private DNA Databases Of “Suspicious People”

By MassPrivateI

Four years ago, DHS created “Rapid DNA” whose sole mission was to create a database of everyone.

Rapid DNA a newly commercialized technology developed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), addresses these challenges by greatly expediting the testing of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that is the only biometric that can accurately verify family relationships. This technology can be used on the scene of mass fatality events, in refugee camps around the world, or at immigration offices. (Source)

Fast forward four years to 2019 and you will see how Homeland Security uses “minimally trained police officers” to collect DNA samples of innocent people.

S&T Capability Development Support Group (CDS) Office of Standards (STN) Standards Integration and Application Deputy Director, Chris Miles said, “The added benefit is that it is fast, requires minimal training, and it can be used in a variety of operational settings.” (To find out more about minimally trained officers click here.)

Using minimally trained police officers to collect innocent people’s DNA would be headline news in most countries but not in America. Our justice system has chosen to ignore that fact and give law enforcement free rein to collect anyone’s DNA for any reason.

I do not have time to address the proverbial elephant in the room and list all the reasons why police should not be collecting and analyzing DNA samples, like fabricating or planting evidence.

Are you at risk of having police collect your DNA?

Recent studies have shown that police stop and question 20 million motorists each year, or 50,000 every day. Now imagine your local/state police or Border Patrol accusing you of speeding or just being near the border and asking for your DNA.

A recent NY Times article warned that one of the “greatest uses” of RAPID DNA is creating a database of “suspicious people.”

In Bucks County, the DNA database has begun to include genetic material from people whom police consider “even just a suspicious subject,” Detective GlennVandegrift said. Mr. FredHarran, director of public safety for the Bensalem police called such cases “one of the greatest uses of this instrument.”

An article in ProPublica warns that “over the last decade, collecting DNA from people who are not charged with — or even suspected of — any particular crime has become an increasingly routine practice for police.” In the article, police in Florida admitted to forcibly taking DNA samples from 15- and 16-year-old kids without parental consent.

The Bensalem Police Department in Bucks County “has built one of the biggest local DNA databases in the country. It contains around 12,000 individual profiles, as well as 13,000 still-unidentified profiles extracted from crime scenes.” (To find out more about private police DNA databases click here.)

A 2017 article in the Mercury News warns that innocent people’s DNA is not removed from police databases and also warned that police are creating a national DNA database of suspicious people.

Police in nine states are collecting DNA from innocent people

Police departments in Maryland,  Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Florida, Utah, Arizona, Texas, California and in Delaware are or will be using DHS’s Rapid DNA.

Bensalem’s Director of Public Safety Frederick Harran warned that when is comes to creating police DNA databases, there is “nothing governing what they are doing.”

It appears that no one is safe from having their DNA collected by law enforcement. Collecting DNA samples of suspicious or innocent people is the hallmark of a Police Sate.

You can read more at the MassPrivateI blog, where this article first appeared.