Gabrielle Russon
In the modern crime-solving world, a killer’s DNA — and the DNA from his relatives — can help police solve the case.
The big break for identifying the Golden State Killer came when one of his distant relatives voluntarily shared his genetic profile on a genealogy website, eventually leading to the 2018 arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, who was sentenced to 11 consecutive life terms for 13 murders.
There was, of course, a Florida connection to that story. That genealogy website, GEDmatch, was based in the Sunshine State and has 140,000 users who have uploaded their DNA analysis and opted in for law enforcement matching, according to Senate analysis.
Now, Florida lawmakers are considering a new bill that adds more privacy protections for people who share their DNA profiles that are used by law enforcement in high-tech criminal investigations.
The Senate Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability unanimously approved SB 1402 during a Wednesday hearing where there was little debate or questions asked.
The bill, which creates a new public record exemption, already cleared the Senate Criminal Justice Committee without any opposition last month.
Sen. Jonathan Martin told lawmakers his bill is needed to protect the identities of people who submit genetic genealogy materials to law enforcement and for the government to maintain good relationships with the DNA database companies.
“Releasing this information jeopardizes relationships with these vendors that cooperate with law enforcement and have helped lead to the successful prosecution of many criminals,” Martin said, naming genetic databases such as GEDmatch, 23andMe, and Family Tree DNA. “The people are the ones who submit their DNA profiles for law enforcement to search, and this protects that as well.”
The Republican from Fort Myers said his bill clarifies current law.
“Currently, Florida law prohibits the release of DNA analytical profiles such as the STR profile. However, it is unclear whether or not the profiles developing or the profiles developed during the genetic genealogy investigation would remain confidential,” he said.
The bill also has a retroactivity clause that limits the disclosure of current case records.
Other than Martin, no one else spoke in favor of or against the bill during Wednesday’s hearing.
