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News Conf. re: DNA sampling
Sheriff Clarke’s Remarks
September 21, 2009
When it was learned several weeks ago that a serial killer was able to circumvent the State Department of Corrections DNA collection procedure, and go on to kill multiple times and escape detection, we all watched as the State Dept. of Justice, the Crime Lab and Dept. of Corrections, engaged in the old comical routine of Who’s on First. No one seemed to know the facts, and to me that is a problem.
No one was willing to accept responsibility and give the people of the state of Wisconsin the confidence that someone was in charge, the problem would be rectified, and people would be held accountable.
It doesn’t matter to the people of this state whether it’s 12,000, 1,200 or 12 DNA samples not taken from criminal offenders.
The fact that no one knows means that no one feels responsible. This is not a perfect world and sometimes, bad outcomes will occur, but I remind people in my office that we operate with no margin for error. It’s a tough standard, but it’s the way we approach our responsibility.
We do know this for certain, and that is that Walter Ellis’s DNA was missing.
The Department of Corrections, the Crime Lab and the Department of Justice will need time to sort this mess out, and that is understandable. The system currently in place was designed to meet the needs of a different era—an era gone by. The collection of DNA from criminal suspects from this point forward however needs to be fixed, and it needs to be fixed NOW. The safety of Wisconsin residents all over the state is at risk, and it is imperative that the Wisconsin state legislature act with a sense of urgency on what I am proposing. Some people run from responsibility, I embrace it. It’s my duty.
I am joined here today by people who want to get this fixed. I’ve seen how slow the legislative process can be. Sometimes that’s good but sometimes it hurts the people who are counting on us to protect them. We are not reinventing the wheel. Other than the necessary time needed to get this legislation right, I am imploring the Wisconsin state legislature to get this bill done.
I’m not looking just to address past failures. I offer a potential solution that can take care of this issue with the sense of urgency that appears to be lacking seventy-six miles to the west of Milwaukee.
For generations, law enforcement in our state, and in our nation, has been taking and processing identification samples from those in our custody: They’re called fingerprints. My agency booked over 44,000 inmates last year, and more than 49,000 the year before that. That’s 93,000 samples over a two-year period.
In each case, we process them and send them along to the FBI. Seamlessly. If there is a problem with a submission, we find out within hours and capture another sample. Seamlessly.
It’s time for professional law enforcement to catch up with modern science, and bring all of the technologies that we have to bear on the issues of safeguarding our citizenry. DNA is the fingerprint of the 21st Century.
So here’s what I’m proposing. If the AG wants the DNA of those arrested for crimes in our communities captured, and processed by a group with a proven record of getting it done, the sheriffs can handle it for you. Once the state legislature has a chance to consider this issue, we can capture DNA samples at the time of booking into a county jail, for those arrested for crimes. I’m trying to close all loopholes.
By law, only the sheriffs can run a jail.
All persons arrested and charged with a crime, or when a criminal complaint is issued by the district attorney, must be booked into the county jail in order to get the criminal process started. Collecting DNA as part of being booked into a county jai is the surest way to know that the DNA sample will be collected. It will be the responsibility of sheriffs to send the sample to the crime lab.
Our local property taxpayers will need to be made whole by the state for performing a state function, but we can get it done.
All 50 states authorize the collection and analysis of DNA samples from convicted offenders and enter resulting DNA profiles into the federal Combined DNA Index System (‘‘CODIS’’), which the FBI has established and which currently holds almost 7 million records. However, only 15 of our brother and sister states have chosen to collect DNA samples from individuals they arrest, including most recently, California, which expects to nearly double the growth rate of its database to 400,000 profiles a year. I want the state of Wisconsin to be the 16th such state.
In fact, current federal law allows the Attorney General to collect DNA samples from all individuals who are arrested, facing charges, or convicted, and from non-United States persons who are detained under the authority of the United States. This will help to identify illegal aliens involved in criminal activity.
Why does the federal government allow such liberal collection of DNA? They recognize that the emergence of DNA identification technology holds vast potential for use in the criminal justice system. In support of this position, the Supreme Court has proffered that DNA constitutes ‘‘genetic fingerprints,’’ that can be used to identify an individual uniquely, but do not disclose an individual’s “traits, disorders, or dispositions” (United States v. Kincade).
As the federal publication DNA-Sample Collection and Biological Evidence Preservation in the Federal Jurisdiction informs us:
As with fingerprints, the collection of DNA samples at or near the time of arrest also can serve purposes relating directly to the arrest and ensuing proceedings. For example, analysis and database matching of a DNA sample collected from an arrestee may show that the arrestee’s DNA matches DNA found in crime scene evidence from a murder, rape, or other serious crime. Such information helps authorities to assess whether an individual may be released safely to the public pending trial and to establish appropriate conditions for his release, or to ensure proper security measures in case he is detained. It may help to detect violations of pretrial release conditions involving criminal conduct whose perpetrator can be identified through DNA matching and to deter such violations. The collection of a DNA sample may also provide an alternative means of directly ascertaining or verifying an arrestee’s identity, where fingerprint records are unavailable, incomplete, or inconclusive. Hence, conducted incident to arrest, DNA-sample collection offers a legitimate means to obtain valuable information regarding the arrestee.
I am reaching out to select members of the Milwaukee delegation of the state legislature, and asking them to discuss whether we as Wisconsinites are ready to stop relying on a technology that was developed in the 1800s, and begin capturing DNA samples at the time of booking into county jails.
News Conference Photo
From left to right - District Attorney John Chisholm, Sheriff David Clarke, State Senator Jeff Plale.
