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posted by martyb on Friday January 25 2019, @08:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the Gattaca dept.

Coming Soon to a Police Station Near You: The DNA 'Magic Box'

They call it the "magic box." Its trick is speedy, nearly automated processing of DNA. "It's groundbreaking to have it in the police department," said Detective Glenn Vandegrift of the Bensalem Police Department. "If we can do it, any department in the country can do it." Bensalem, a suburb in Bucks County, near Philadelphia, is on the leading edge of a revolution in how crimes are solved. For years, when police wanted to learn whether a suspect's DNA matched previously collected crime-scene DNA, they sent a sample to an outside lab, then waited a month or more for results.

But in early 2017, the police booking station in Bensalem became the first in the country to install a Rapid DNA machine, which provides results in 90 minutes, and which police can operate themselves. Since then, a growing number of law enforcement agencies across the country — in Houston, Utah, Delaware — have begun operating similar machines and analyzing DNA on their own.

The science-fiction future, in which police can swiftly identify robbers and murderers from discarded soda cans and cigarette butts, has arrived. In 2017, President Trump signed into law the Rapid DNA Act, which, starting this year, will enable approved police booking stations in several states to connect their Rapid DNA machines to Codis, the national DNA database. Genetic fingerprinting is set to become as routine as the old-fashioned kind.

[...] But already many legal experts and scientists are troubled by the way the technology is being used. As police agencies build out their local DNA databases, they are collecting DNA not only from people who have been charged with major crimes but also, increasingly, from people who are merely deemed suspicious, permanently linking their genetic identities to criminal databases.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @09:59AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @09:59AM (#791682)

    Why worry? This is an enormous breakthrough! With it the police will be able to pin any crime they want on anyone because we all know that DNA is infallable!
    https://kellerlawoffices.com/prosecutors-drop-murder-charge-due-dna-transference/ [kellerlawoffices.com]

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @11:00AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @11:00AM (#791685)

    They had a stall in the middle of the mall where people could voluntarily submit their fingerprints. This was a two decades ago.
    The mind boggles.

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 25 2019, @02:58PM (1 child)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday January 25 2019, @02:58PM (#791784) Homepage

      I'd voluntarily submit a DNA sample for the police department, for females-only. Do you want it on the face or chest?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @03:53PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @03:53PM (#791818)

        Wait for them to get the transitioning female out.