Senator Scott Sifton (D-Affton) says it’s only a matter of time before Missouri requires those arrested for any felony – not just certain felonies – to provide a DNA sample for unsolved crime analysis. He’s offering a bill that would apply such a law to those 17 years and older. A senate committee will today hear his proposal.
Senator Scott Sifton (D-Affton)
“Eventually, all 50 states will be running DNA samples on all felony arrestees. A number of states already do. The only question is how quickly does Missouri wants to get with the times and take advantage of the law enforcement technology that is now available to us? I think we should do it sooner rather than later,” said Sifton.
DNA samples are currently collected in arrests for only certain felonies, and then checked against samples taken from unsolved crimes.
“The reality is, we already do this in a lot of cases. We’ll be doing this in more cases. Will there be more analysis done and samples? Yes. Will there be more prosecutions? Yes, but we want to enforce the law,” said Sifton.
The estimated cost of expanded sampling is more than $860,000 a year.
A similar bill has been filed in the House.
