In 2003, a stranger broke in the victim’s house and raped her. Although the woman reported and tried to describe the man, police officers could not identify him from the description. The only solution was for the police to get the man’s DNA from a rape kit. Alonzo King got arrested in 2009 for an assault. The cops used a cotton swab to obtain a DNA sample from the inside of his cheek. The sample got tested, and it matched the rape case in 2003. Kind was charged for rape by the state court. The case was, however, reversed by the court of appeal of Maryland with the claim that the cotton-swab procedure was not a reasonable search under the fourth amendment. The U.S supreme court granted certiorari, which is an order issued by the high court to review a decision made by a lower court (Joh, 2013). I do not think that this violates the right of an individual of unreasonable searches and seizures. Providing a sample for the DNA test is just the same as giving out your fingerprints. The procedure does not interfere with an individual’s privacy. DNA test does not reveal any information that is related to personal health, but it can only identify an individual. Therefore, DNA can be used by the government to identify criminals and to solve cases of missing persons. If the government could collect everyone’s’ DNA sample, then it can quickly get a solution to end criminal activities. However, the storage of an individual’s DNA after the sample gets obtained should be done under strict measures. Such data can get abused by government employees or criminals (Dwork & Roth, 2014). For instance, a person’s DNA can be used by a worker at a crime scene to mislead the investigation or to accuse them falsely.
References
Dwork, C., & Roth, A. (2014). The algorithmic foundations of differential privacy. Foundations and Trends® in Theoretical Computer Science , 9 (3–4), 211-407.
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Joh, E. E. (2013). Maryland v. King: Policing and Genetic Privacy. Ohio St. J. Crim. L. , 11 , 281.
