Machine That Can Scan Your DNA in 90 Minutes
The FBI Is Very Excited About This Machine That Can Scan
Your DNA in 90 Minutes
Rapid-DNA technology makes it easier than ever to grab
and store your genetic profile. G-men, cops, and Homeland Security can't wait
to see it everywhere.
—By Shane Bauer Thu Nov. 20, 2014 6:30 AM EST
Robert Schueren shook my hand firmly, handed me his
business card, and flipped it over, revealing a short list of letters and
numbers. "Here is my DNA profile." He smiled. "I have nothing to
hide." I had come to meet Schueren, the CEO of IntegenX, at his company's
headquarters in Pleasanton, California, to see its signature product: a machine
the size of a large desktop printer that can unravel your genetic code in the
time it takes to watch a movie.
Schueren grabbed a cotton swab and dropped it into a plastic
cartridge. That's what, say, a police officer would use to wipe the inside of
your cheek to collect a DNA sample after an arrest, he explained. Other bits of
material with traces of DNA on them, like cigarette butts or fabric, could work
too. He inserted the cartridge into the machine and pressed a green button on
its touch screen: "It's that simple." Ninety minutes later, the
RapidHIT 200 would generate a DNA profile, check it against a database, and
report on whether it found a match.
The RapidHIT represents a major technological
leap—testing a DNA sample in a forensics lab normally takes at least two days.
This has government agencies very excited. The Department of Homeland Security,
the Department of Defense, and the Justice Department funded the initial
research for "rapid DNA" technology, and after just a year on the
market, the $250,000 RapidHIT is already being used in a few states, as well as
China, Russia, Australia, and countries in Africa and Europe.
"We're not always aware of how it's being
used," Schueren said. "All we can say is that it's used to give an
accurate identification of an individual." Civil liberties advocates worry
that rapid DNA will spur new efforts by the FBI and police to collect ordinary
citizens' genetic code.
The US government will soon test the machine in refugee
camps in Turkey and possibly Thailand on families seeking asylum in the United
States, according to Chris Miles, manager of the Department of Homeland
Security's biometrics program. "We have all these families that claim they
are related, but we don't have any way to verify that," he says. Miles
says that rapid DNA testing will be voluntary, though refusing a test could
cause an asylum application to be rejected.
"We're not always aware of how it's being used. All
we can say is that it's used to give an accurate identification of an
individual."
Miles also says that federal immigration officials are
interested in using rapid DNA to curb trafficking by ensuring that children
entering the country are related to the adults with them. Jeff Heimburger, the
vice president of marketing at IntegenX, says the government has also inquired
about using rapid DNA to screen green-card applicants. (An Immigration and
Customs Enforcement spokesman said he was not aware that the agency was
pursuing the technology.)
Meanwhile, police have started using rapid DNA in
Arizona, Florida, and South Carolina. In August, sheriffs in Columbia, South
Carolina, used a RapidHIT to nab an attempted murder suspect. The machine's
speed provides a major "investigative lead," said Vince Figarelli,
superintendent of the Arizona Department of Public Safety crime lab, which is
using a RapidHIT to compare DNA evidence from property crimes against the
state's database of 300,000 samples. Heimburger notes that the system can also
prevent false arrests and wrongful convictions: "There is great value in
finding out that somebody is not a suspect."
But the technology is not a silver bullet for DNA
evidence. The IntegenX executives brought up rape kits so often that it sounded
like their product could make a serious dent in the backlog of half a million
untested kits. Yet when I pressed Schueren on this, he conceded that the
RapidHIT is not actually capable of processing rape kits since it can't discern
individual DNA in commingled bodily fluids.
Despite the new technology's crime-solving potential,
privacy advocates are wary of its spread. If rapid-DNA machines can be used in
a refugee camp, "they can certainly be used in the back of a squad
car," says Jennifer Lynch, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. "I could see that happening in the future as the
prices of these machines go down."
Democratic members of Congress have urged the FBI to look
into the "broad deployment" of rapid DNA in police stations.
Lynch is particularly concerned that law enforcement
agencies will use the devices to scoop up and store ever more DNA profiles. Every
state already has a forensic DNA database, and while these systems were
initially set up to track convicted violent offenders, their collection
thresholds have steadily broadened. Today, at least 28 include data from anyone
arrested for certain felonies, even if they are not convicted; some store the
DNA of people who have committed misdemeanors as well. The FBI's National DNA
Index System has more than 11 million profiles of offenders plus 2 million
people who have been arrested but not necessarily convicted of a crime.
For its part, Homeland Security will not hang onto
refugees' DNA records, insists Miles. ("They aren't criminals," he
pointed out.) However, undocumented immigrants in custody may be required to
provide DNA samples, which are put in the FBI's database. DHS documents
obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation say there may even be a legal
case for "mandating collection of DNA" from anyone granted legal
status under a future immigration amnesty. (The documents also state that
intelligence agencies and the military are interested in using rapid DNA to
identify sex, race, and other factors the machines currently do not reveal.)
The FBI is the only federal agency allowed to keep a
national DNA database. Currently, police must use a lab to upload genetic profiles
to it. But that could change. The FBI's website says it is eager to see rapid
DNA in wide use and that it supports the "legislative changes
necessary" to make that happen. IntegenX's Heimburger says the FBI is
almost finished working with members of Congress on a bill that would give
"tens of thousands" of police stations rapid-DNA machines that could
search the FBI's system and add arrestees' profiles to it. (The RapitHIT is
already designed to do this.) IntegenX has spent $70,000 lobbying the FBI, DHS,
and Congress over the last two years.
The FBI declined to comment, and Heimburger wouldn't say
which lawmakers might sponsor the bill. But some have already given rapid DNA
their blessing. Rep. Eric Swalwell, a former prosecutor who represents the district
where IntegenX is based, says he'd like to see the technology "put to use
quickly to help law enforcement"—while protecting civil liberties.
In March, he and seven other Democratic members of
Congress, including progressive stalwart Rep. Barbara Lee of California, urged
the FBI to assess rapid DNA's "viability for broad deployment" in
police departments across the country.
Comments
Post a Comment