Currently there are 21 states that require a DNA sample from any person who is arrested for a felony.

The state of Georgia currently requires a DNA sample only from people who are convicted of a felony, not those arrested on felony charges. However, all of that could change soon.

Georgia State Representative Rob Teihet is seeking to expand the state’s DNA database by pushing for a law that would mandate DNA testing for all people who are arrested for a felony.

Some Georgia lawmakers believe that expanding the DNA database would help prevent repeat felony offenses.

It currently takes a crime lab six months to compare and match DNA samples from the database. Georgia already has a backlog of DNA matching cases that need worked by the state’s crime technicians.

Representative Teilhet is currently a candidate for Georgia Attorney General. At a recent news conference he stated that around 130 crimes could have been stopped in 3 states if DNA had been collected after the arrest.

Representative Teilhet plans to introduce the expanded DNA collection legislation this week.

[ Source: WRDW.com ]

Two Cleveland city police officers were sentenced Thursday in Cleveland’s Muni Court after admitting that they used a police department database for personal use.

Judge Michael Ryan sentenced Officer Samuel Feldman to four days in jail and a year probation.

Feldman pleaded no contest on four counts of unauthorized use of property.

Officer Andrea Viccario received a suspended 30-day jail sentence after she pleaded guilty to one count of the same charge.

The Cleveland City Police Department said charges were filed after the two police officers used the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway database, intended for police investigations, for their own personal use.

No specific details were released on how the two officers used the database or any information they may have obtained from it.

[ Source: Cleveland.com ]

The Detroit News is reporting that local police departments are making millions of dollars in revenue from the wrongful seizure of property.

According to the article, the police seize the personal property suspected in crimes, but very often no charges were filed and sometimes the police even admit that no crime was ever committed.

The money raised by seizing property in the Detroit Metro area skyrocketed by more than 50% to $20.62 million dollars between 2003 and 2007, according to police records obtained by the Detroit News.

At some police departments, the amount of money collected went from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands and, at one police department, went into the millions of dollars.

Innocent people whose property is seized by police still end up paying upwards of $1,000 or more to get their seized property back, so the police departments have a strong financial incentive to seize property for revenue purposes.

According to Jacque Sutton, a 21 year old college student whose car was seized by police during a raided party, this is nothing more than “legalized stealing.”

Sutton added “According to the law, I did nothing wrong — but they’re allowed to take my property anyway. It doesn’t make sense.”

Although courts typically uphold the government’s right to seize property involved in crimes, police seizures are a growing source of controversy in Michigan, especially since police departments are struggling to balance budgets.

Some law enforcement professionals excuse the increase in property seizures as a result of diligent ( victims might say overzealous ) law enforcement.

Police and local prosecutors profit from these seizures because people must either pay to get their seized property back or lose their property to the law enforcement agencies, which will auction off the seized property.

Seizure laws have expanded over the years to allow the seizure of personal property that was only loosely connected to an alleged crime.

Police can now seize property for minor infractions that would not have resulted in seizures before, including minor drug possession, gambling or even being near illegal activity.

Source: Detroit News

The New York City Police Department is building a database of cell phone numbers and their owners. NYPD officers have been advised to record the serial numbers on suspects’ cell phones in an effort to track them against past or future criminal activity.

The cell phone database could be a powerful tool for police investigations into drug networks and other crimes, according to police.

An internal NYPD memo states that police officers should record the International Mobile Equipment Identity number on a suspect’s cell phone during or after an arrest.

The International Mobile Equipment Identity number is recorded by cell phone service providers when mobile calls are made.

This cell phone information could allow police to match a cell phone calls made by one suspect to a phone used by other criminals.

Some limitations on the usefulness of this information – Chinese-made cell phones sold in India have the same number and some other foreign sold cell phones are encoded with false numbers.

Civil libertarians are concerned by the cell phone database, since normally a warrant is required to access calls made by a person or phone numbers in a person’s address book.

One civil libertarian said that it looks like New York police officers are “taking phones apart to get information” without the required warrants.

The cell phone data will be joined with another records database of over 20 million 911 calls that the NYPD has been collecting.

The New York Police Department began building the 911 call database for incidents involving a police response in 2003.

Source: NY Daily News

The New York City Police Department is working on implementing a high-tech, anti-terrorism system that will track every vehicle that comes into Manhattan. The new security system is called “Operation Sentinel.”

Operation Sentinel will use radiation sensors and surveillance cameras to monitor and track every vehicle that enters lower Manhattan.

Every moving vehicle that drives into Manhattan over a bridge or in a tunnel will have its license plate photographed and screened.

Most of the NYC commuters interviewed by CBS 2 had no problem with being filmed, monitored and screened for radioactive materials, as the plan calls for, but some people feel the new security measures invade their privacy.

Chris Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union warned, “We are really getting to the point where NYPD is going to be tracking our movements all over the city everyday.”

Dunn believes the new security system is too intrusive, stating:

“If police were going to focus on terrorism suspects everyone would support that, but this is a program where every person driving in a car, no matter what they have done, are going to end up in a police file.”

You can watch a news report on “Operation Sentinel” below –

Source: WCBSTV.com