DNA - The New Fingerprint for the Police

The Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion today which ratifies the current police procedure of collecting DNA samples from many arrested individuals for storage in a DNA database - just like they have done for decades with fingerprints and photographs.   One of the persons arrested by the police and who had his DNA collected took his objections all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States under the claim that the collection of the DNA violated his constitutional right from unreasonable search and seizure. The United States Supreme Court, in a narrow 5-4 decision, disagreed.  They held that the collection of DNA from arrestees of "serious offenses" could be taken for the same reasons they take fingerprints and photographs.  The Court held there was no fundamental difference between the science behind fingerprints and DNA.

The past meets the future in law enforcement.