Justice Department Sets Strict Rules for Police Use of Consumer DNA Data
The U.S. Department of Justice issues interim guidelines restricting how law enforcement utilizes genetic genealogy from consumer services to solve crimes. The new policy requires secondary verification and explicitly protects user privacy and civil liberties.
The U.S. Department of Justice issues a preliminary set of guidelines dictating how law enforcement agencies use consumer genetic data in criminal investigations. Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen states that while forensic genetic genealogy helps solve previously unsolvable violent crimes, the department prioritizes privacy and civil liberties alongside these investigative advancements.
The new interim policy establishes strict boundaries for using this technology, most notably dictating that authorities cannot arrest a suspect based solely on a genetic association from a consumer service. If investigators identify a suspect through genetic genealogy, they must directly compare the sample to an existing forensic profile in the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) to confirm the match.
Furthermore, this genetic data is restricted to unsolved violent crimes, sexual offenses, or identifying suspected homicide victims unless prosecutors authorize an expansion for threats to public safety or national security. Investigators are only permitted to search consumer databases that provide explicit user notifications, and they must exhaust the FBI's internal system first while having a designated laboratory official review the forensic samples for suitability.