Release of DNA data is likely
State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has tentatively decided to provide police with partial DNA matches from California’s offender database that would enable authorities to search for an unknown offender’s relatives when all other leads in an investigation had been exhausted.
The decision, expected to be finalized this month, means California would join at least eight other states authorized to do a form of familial searching in DNA databases. The goal is to find an offender through a relative in the database who has a similar genetic profile. Relatives’ profiles would have been stored because of previous crimes.
Among other restrictions, Chief Assistant Atty. Gen. Dane Gillette said, the names of potential relatives in the database would be revealed only when a person shared at least 15 genetic markers with the DNA from the crime scene. Additional tests would have to confirm a biological relationship between the unknown offender and the person whose DNA was in the database.
The state decided to permit such releases in limited cases after months of study determined that the process was legal, Gillette said.
Studies have shown that criminals tend to have relatives who have also committed crimes.
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-- Maura Dolan
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