Class-action lawsuit targets NYPD practice of secretly collecting DNA

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Class-action lawsuit targets NYPD practice of secretly collecting DNA

BY MATT KATZ
PUBLISHED MARCH 22, 2022 AT 6:00 A.M.

It is a classic practice memorialized in countless television cop dramas: an enterprising detective offers a cigarette or soda to a suspect in a police interrogation room.

But a federal class-action lawsuit filed Monday night in the Southern District of New York accused the NYPD, working with the city medical examiner’s office, of unconstitutionally using that practice to collect possible suspects' DNA from cigarette butts, empty cans or bottles left in interrogation rooms. The suit, filed by the Legal Aid Society, tells the story of a 12-year-old brought in for questioning who was given a soda from McDonald’s that an officer, clad in rubber gloves, later carefully collected to search for DNA fragments, according to court filings.

Phil Desgranges, supervising attorney for Legal Aid, said this means that everyone, including children, can potentially become “permanent suspects,” as each individual's unique biological data could be stored in a suspect index and compared to evidence in future crimes, regardless of whether that person was charged with a crime. ... “If the NYPD wanted to search someone’s cell phone, if they wanted to search your home, they would have to get a warrant or court order to do so,” Desgranges said. “But here, they’re getting this ability to effectively search your genetic material perpetually without any authorization from a court, and without any knowledge of the person whose DNA is being taken.”

The Legal Aid Society filed the class-action lawsuit against the city, along with top NYPD and medical examiner officials, on behalf of the more than 30,000 people with DNA in the suspect index as of the filing. Lawyers said they hoped to get the DNA profiles expunged from the index and stop the NYPD and medical examiner from taking and holding DNA in perpetuity.

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