A little-known database kept by New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner, which stores DNA profiles of thousands of New Yorkers in a “Subject Index” that includes individuals with no criminal convictions and children as young as 12 years old, is operating without authorization from the state legislature or independent oversight, reports the West Side Rag. The DNA in the unauthorized Subject Index is constantly being compared with a state authorized forensic index, looking for potential matches in a process that critics say amounts to a “perpetual genetic lineup.”
In March, the Legal Aid Society of New York sued the city alleging that the Subject Index violates New Yorkers’ rights under state law and the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits searches and seizures without a warrant. Legal Aid argues that the Subject Index increases the risk that an innocent person will be erroneously arrested and prosecuted due to the contamination of evidence. Black and Latino people comprise the “vast majority” of arrestees who are subject to the city’s taking and indexing of DNA. Both police and the city medical examiner’s office dispute Legal Aid’s characterization of the Subject Index database as unauthorized, but have yet to cite the specific laws that they say authorize the index.