Recently in Maryland v. King (U.S. 6-32013), the United States Supreme Court said, “Yes!”
According to the Court, the DNA identification of an arrestee “is a reasonable search that can be considered part of a routine booking procedure. When officers make an arrest supported by probable cause to hold for a serious offense and they bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody, taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee’s DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.”
The Case
Defendant Alonzo King “was arrested in Wicomico County, Maryland, and charged with first and second-degree assault for menacing a group of people with a shotgun. As part of a routine booking procedure for serious offenses, his DNA sample was taken by applying a cotton swab or filter paper – known as a buccal swab – to the inside of his cheeks.” The DNA matched the DNA taken from a Salisbury, Maryland, woman who was raped in 2003. King was tried and convicted for the rape. While additional DNA samples were taken from him and used in the rape trial, there was no doubt that it was the DNA from the cheek sample taken at the time he was booked which led to him being linked to the rape and charged with its commission.
The National Tactical Officer’s Association National Conference has concluded in Kansas City. One of the courses I was able to attend was a 4-hour session covering lessons learned on barricaded subject calls. Although tailored for tactical officers, the training brings light to difficult situations faced by patrol officers as well. This will be the first in a series on the class.