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Debate on the ethics and effectiveness of DNA collection practices
1:07:35
ยท
3 min
Council Member Diana I. Ayala and NYPD officials engage in a debate about the ethics and effectiveness of DNA collection practices, particularly for juveniles. The discussion covers the balance between solving crimes and protecting individual rights, as well as the potential for bias in the system.
- NYPD officials defend DNA collection as a crucial tool for solving serious crimes
- Ayala expresses concerns about cultural disconnect and potential bias in the system
- The debate touches on the balance between public safety and individual rights
- NYPD emphasizes the rarity of collecting juvenile DNA samples without an arrest
Michael Gerber
1:07:35
It's not lazy policing.
1:07:36
It is not it's not lazy policing at all.
Michael LiPetri
1:07:39
It's
Michael Gerber
1:07:40
trying to solve crimes.
1:07:41
And and, yes, when when detectives do not yet have probable cause, they're using investigative steps to try to figure out who committed very serious offenses.
1:07:51
One of the tools at their disposal is is to obtain, sometimes via consent, sometimes via abandonment, a DNA sample.
1:07:59
I don't see what's lazy about that at all.
1:08:01
Listen, I agree with you.
1:08:02
If we have probable cause to arrest someone, we can go arrest them.
1:08:06
I don't think our detectives are gonna if they have probable cause to arrest someone for a serious crime, they're not gonna hold back.
1:08:10
They're gonna go make the arrest.
Diana I. Ayala
1:08:12
And if somebody committed a serious a serious crime, I want you to arrest them.
1:08:15
I'm I just wanna make
Michael Gerber
1:08:16
that clear.
1:08:16
Right.
1:08:16
We have to figure out who did it.
1:08:17
We have to figure out
Diana I. Ayala
1:08:18
I got and I I I respect that too.
1:08:20
I get it.
1:08:20
I just wanna know what what I am trying to do with this bill is to prevent young people.
1:08:27
I don't you know, I think that there's a cultural disconnect.
1:08:30
The way you know, I was I was raised in the Lower East Side in Lillian Wall houses.
1:08:34
Most of my friends were considered gang members, know.
1:08:38
They get labeled for because they're affiliated with someone.
1:08:42
You you know, you have kids that you know are looking for to fit in somewhere.
1:08:47
Many times I was in an apartment where there were drugs, where there were guns.
1:08:53
I never committed a crime.
1:08:55
I never committed a crime, but that was the environment that I was raised in.
1:08:58
Those that's that was it.
1:09:01
I didn't have you know those choices.
1:09:02
I walked in and I walked out.
1:09:05
I wanna make sure that young people that are not guilty of anything are not having their database stored.
1:09:15
I don't you know, the you you I guess I think council the chair asked about how long, you know, you you carry that, how long you store it, and you never said that you you throw it away.
1:09:26
Right?
1:09:26
You said in four two years, we're gonna look at it.
1:09:28
In four years, we're gonna look at it.
Michael Gerber
1:09:31
I mean every two years there's a review of what's in the data.
1:09:34
Any sample that's been in the database for two years gets reviewed.
Michael LiPetri
1:09:37
Yes.
Michael Gerber
1:09:37
There's a separate every four years a larger look back.
1:09:40
But I just want to go back again.
1:09:43
I understand what you're saying in terms of concern for a juvenile's DNA being taken.
1:09:49
I get that.
Diana I. Ayala
1:09:50
And innocent.
Michael Gerber
1:09:51
But but that but that's the question.
1:09:52
Is the person innocent or guilty?
1:09:54
We don't we don't know.
1:09:55
Have a suspect.
Jason Savino
1:09:56
We don't know.
Michael Gerber
1:09:56
And wait wait.
1:09:57
And and and if we have, let's say, a homicide.
1:10:03
Right?
1:10:03
And we think we guess.
1:10:05
We think this seven a juvenile 17 year old that committed this homicide.
1:10:09
Right?
1:10:10
We do not have enough to make an arrest.
1:10:11
We don't have enough.
1:10:12
We don't have probable cause.
1:10:14
But we think that getting a DNA sample could make the difference.
1:10:21
It might if if it if it if it if that sample comes out one way, we're gonna have enough to make the arrest.
1:10:27
It Coming out a different way, the person may even be exonerated.
1:10:31
But
Diana I. Ayala
1:10:32
So let me ask again, out of the one seventy four, all of those 174 were arrested for that crime that
Michael Gerber
1:10:38
The vast Almost all.
1:10:39
Nine I think we had ninety
Diana I. Ayala
1:10:40
Of the of the one seventy four?
Michael Gerber
1:10:42
Yes.
1:10:42
Ninety nine percent we had a felony arrest.
Michael LiPetri
1:10:45
It is such a minute, very, very rare occasion that we would be collecting a juvenile's abandonment sample prior to an arrest.
1:10:57
Very minute.
Diana I. Ayala
1:10:58
Okay.