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Q&A
Questioning the accuracy of DNA sample collection statistics
0:53:05
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108 sec
Council Member Diana I. Ayala questions NYPD officials about the accuracy of their claim that 99% of DNA samples are connected to arrests. NYPD officials clarify that 99% of DNA samples from juveniles are connected to felony arrests over the past three years. They also explain the challenges in tracking the link between DNA samples and convictions.
- NYPD officials state that 99% of juvenile DNA samples are from felony arrests
- The difficulty of tracking DNA sample connections to convictions is discussed
- NYPD explains that DNA hits often corroborate existing arrests or exonerate individuals
Diana I. Ayala
0:53:05
I just wanna piggy good morning.
0:53:07
It is still morning.
0:53:08
I want to piggyback off of the chair's question.
0:53:11
If you're not tracking how many of the samples are connected to an actual arrest, then how do you know that it's 99% of the time?
Michael LiPetri
0:53:20
It's ninety nine percent of arrestees.
0:53:24
So we get DNA, the DNA samples that we've taken from juveniles, it's ninety nine percent for felony arrests.
0:53:34
So out of all our DNA samples over the past three years of juveniles, it is connected ninety nine percent to a juvenile felony arrest.
Jason Savino
0:53:46
Yeah.
0:53:47
And and the vast majority of the DNA hits are what I spoke about earlier, you know, that connection to the gun arrest that corroborates the arrest that we already have.
0:53:57
So just to bring you to a world, it's approximately forty or 50 in 2024, but that's the world we're in.
0:54:04
You have to remember how little how how how it's it's so rare that we collect this.
0:54:13
So to have even that amount of hits that corroborate these arrests, and like we said, that also exonerates so many individuals as well.
0:54:22
Also,
Michael Gerber
0:54:22
just sorry.
0:54:23
If I may.
0:54:23
Just I I I understood Jairus Salam question a little bit differently, and maybe I misunderstood.
0:54:27
I thought he was asking about sort of the link between that DNA sort of resulting in the conviction.
0:54:34
That we don't have data on that and that it would be a harder thing to have data for.
0:54:38
In other words, you would have to do a sort of a case by case analysis.
0:54:42
Did this DNA collection sort of make the difference?
0:54:45
I'm not saying it's impossible, but you can see that we have to be very much a case by case analysis.
0:54:50
It would be much harder to pull data on that.