New York, NY - Mayor Michael Bloomberg is demanding that state lawmakers adopt a law that requires all convicted criminals to give DNA samples. He says it's a great crime fighting tool, but others say it goes too far.

 

 

May 3, 2006, 5:08 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) _ Law enforcement officials, crime victims and Mayor Michael Bloomberg pleaded with state lawmakers on Wednesday to pass a law requiring DNA collection from all convicted criminals, which they said would create the most comprehensive DNA database in the nation.

Fewer than half of all convicted felons and about 6 percent of those who commit misdemeanors are required to give DNA samples for New York's databanks, depending on the crime. Many states already collect samples from all felons and some misdemeanor offenders, but officials said New York would be the first to require DNA from every person convicted of a crime.

The city's five district attorneys and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly noted that many criminals commit all types of offenses, and that greater DNA collection would help authorities fill in the gaps and solve more crimes.

Gov. George Pataki has already pressed for DNA databank expansion, but the bill has failed in the state Assembly. The mayor on Wednesday urged the Legislature to push it through.

"That will make an enormous difference in our ability to stop rapes and other kinds of crime going forward by finding out who's done it in the past and incarcerating them," Bloomberg said.

One of the main sticking points in the Assembly, and among some critics of the bill, is the handling of voluntary DNA samples. In many cases, people who are not even arrested of a crime will submit samples so that police can rule them out.

Those wary of the broadened law want to make sure that it won't also sweep those voluntary DNA samples into the databank, according to Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, a Brooklyn Democrat who is chairman of the Codes Committee, which handles criminal justice legislation.

Lentol predicted the bill would have Assembly support as long as that issue is addressed. And a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he backs the databank expansion and hopes to act on it this session.