DNA samples of felony arrestees OK, court rules

California's voter-approved law requiring police to take DNA samples from anyone arrested on a felony charge is constitutional because it intrudes only minimally on privacy while enhancing the state's ability to solve crimes and clear the innocent, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

DNA sampling is no more invasive than fingerprinting and provides an "extraordinarily effective tool for law enforcement," the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a 2-1 ruling.

Dissenting Judge William Fletcher, however, said fingerprints contain less information than DNA and are used for a different reason - to identify suspects. He said DNA shouldn't be collected from suspects who have already been identified through fingerprints, and haven't been convicted yet, merely to try to connect them to other crimes.

The law, part of a 2004 ballot measure that took effect in 2009, requires police to swab an inner cheek of all felony arrestees for DNA and enter the information in a national database. The previous law required DNA samples from convicted felons.

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