Starting April 2, 2015, not only felons will have their DNA forcibly taken, but DNA samples will also be taken on ALL criminal misdemeanor convictions.

A misdemeanor is defined as a criminal offense where the penalty may include up to one year in the county jail. This can include disorderly conduct, possession of THC (marijuana), theft, retail theft, repeat OWI/DUI, Operating After Revocation of Driver’s License, Operating Commercial Vehicle without Proper Endorsement and hosts of other misdemeanor offenses.

It does not matter if a person is accused of a violent crime. One can argue that law abiding citizens have nothing to worry about; however vast amounts of information contained in DNA will now be relinquished to the State. It is the most private thing existing and, in my book, can be subject to abuse by the State and its employees.

On misdemeanors, if a suspect is not convicted, a sample will supposedly be removed after a year.

A side effect of this may be people unfamiliar with the law resisting providing a sample. This could trigger police issuing other misdemeanor offenses such as Resisting Arrest or Obstructing an Officer and provide an additional basis for obtaining a DNA sample, even if the underlying alleged crime might not be proven.

Like it or not, DNA sample expansion obviously has the potential to aid in solving cold case offenses. Only time will tell whether this huge step in invading privacy justifies the social cost.