File picture: San Francisco District Legal professional Chesa Boudin reported Monday that a lady was not too long ago arrested for a felony property crime based mostly on her DNA collected years in the past throughout a home violence-involved rape examination
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco’s police chief stated Monday that he's investigating claims by town’s district lawyer that DNA collected from rape victims is getting used to assist establish them as doable suspects in crimes.
The police crime lab “makes an attempt to establish crime suspects” by looking a regulation enforcement database that features DNA collected from sexual assault victims, District Legal professional Chesa Boudin stated Monday.
He didn’t establish the database, however stated one lady was not too long ago arrested for a felony property crime based mostly on her DNA collected years in the past throughout a home violence-involved rape examination.
That would violate the constitutional safety in opposition to unreasonable searches and seizures in addition to California’s Victims’ Invoice of Rights and will dissuade sexual assault victims from reporting crimes, Boudin stated, in accordance with the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Rapes and sexual assault are violent, dehumanizing, and traumatic. I'm disturbed that victims who've the braveness to bear an invasive examination to assist establish their perpetrators are being handled like criminals relatively than supported as crime victims,” Boudin stated in a press release. “We should always encourage survivors to come back ahead — not acquire proof to make use of in opposition to them sooner or later.”
Boudin didn’t present many particulars in regards to the case and stated his workplace continues to be investigating what number of victims of sexual assault might have been arrested based mostly on their DNA.
Nonetheless, the database may doubtlessly embrace hundreds of DNA profiles from sexual assault victims, he stated.
San Francisco Police Chief Invoice Scott stated he has ordered an investigation.
“We mustn't ever create disincentives for crime victims to cooperate with police, and if it’s true that DNA collected from a rape or sexual assault sufferer has been utilized by SFPD to establish and apprehend that particular person as a suspect in one other crime, I’m dedicated to ending the follow,” he stated.
San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen stated she discovered in regards to the alleged follow final weekend and has requested town lawyer’s workplace to draft laws barring using rape equipment proof besides to analyze the rape, the Chronicle reported.