In a press release, the FBI announced that it eliminated years-long DNA-processing backlog, shrinking it from an all-time high of about 1.81 million samples to zero.
BACKGROUND ON THE FEDERAL DNA DATABASE UNIT
The FBI Laboratory’s Federal DNA Database Unit (FDDU) is a team that exists to intake and process DNA samples from U.S. Department of Justice and other federal law enforcement agencies. The FDDU generates genetic profiles from these samples, quality-checks these profiles, and adds them to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). This national database contains genetic profiles from crime scenes contributed by federal, state, and local forensic laboratories.
Historically, this tasking required the FDDU to turn around about 100,000 samples received from DOJ and other federal law enforcement agencies each year. But a federal regulation change that happened to coincide with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused the unit’s workload to surge, eventually climbing to well over a million unprocessed samples.
Federal law requires U.S. Department of Justice components and federal law enforcement agencies to capture DNA samples and biographic information from federal arrestees, from non-U.S. citizens whom the U.S. government detains, and from convicted criminals. Those samples then head to the FBI Laboratory.
There, FDDU intakes the samples, processes them, and uses them to generate genetic profiles that are added to the CODIS database. Law enforcement agencies can then query DNA samples from crime scenes or evidence kits against profiles in CODIS in hopes of getting a match—which would, in theory, tie an individual in the database to a crime.
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES
Rapid DNA instruments can now be produced that can create a CODIS-worthy profile within about 90 minutes. Also, the FBI approved the first eligible system to generate DNA profiles that can be searched against the national CODIS database network when FBI requirements are met.
Previously, Rapid DNA technologies were primarily used for reference, victim identification and booking applications. This new technological development now enables law enforcement to accelerate their investigations by potentially matching evidentiary samples to suspects in hours rather than days or weeks. This supports faster identification of perpetrators or earlier exclusion of individuals from investigative focus, while maintaining FBI quality requirements, laboratory oversight, qualified analyst review and accredited laboratory standards.
ARE THE FBI’S DNA PROFILES A SEARCH & SEIZURE THAT VIOLATE THE FOURTH AMENDMENT?
yES. As DNA database programs have widened in scope and grown in numbers, their consistency with the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures has increasingly been challenged. In the context of compulsory DNA collection, courts have widely upheld laws mandating the collection of DNA from persons who were convicted and are subject to the penal system’s custody or supervision. However, no judicial consensus has emerged regarding the constitutionality of mandating DNA collection from arrestees who have been criminally indicted.
Instead, courts have split over the existence and scope of an arrestee’s reasonable expectation of privacy and the degree of privacy intrusion caused by DNA sampling. The limited number of court decisions in this area also suggests that there are conflicting opinions about the analogousness of DNA collection and fingerprinting.
Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a crime involving Search & Seizure. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.
