United States Supreme Court – June 3, 2013

by: Alex Flood • June 5, 2013 • no comments

Law Enforcement Officers May Collect DNA of an Individual Arrested for a “Serious Offense” Without Individualized Suspicion.

Individualized suspicion is not required to search and seize an individual’s DNA profile, by swabbing the inside of his mouth, after an arrest for a “serious offense” (not defined in the opinion). The court holds that such a search is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Additionally, the court holds that analysis of the DNA for identification purposes is also permissible under the Fourth Amendment.

In finding the search reasonable the Court says the government’s interest in the search outweighs the intrusion upon the arrested individual’s privacy interest. Such a search enables police to safely and accurately identify persons in custody. The court adds that an individual’s identity includes criminal acts the individual may have committed in the past. Like fingerprints, the DNA profile allows police to produce a “more comprehensive record” of an individual’s identity.

The dissent notes that suspicionless searches are “never allowed if their principal end is ordinary crime-solving.” If identifying an individual means finding out what unsolved crimes he may have committed, then identification is “indistinguishable” from ordinary crime-solving. “Maryland v King”, 569 U. S. ____ (2013).