Arizona Senate committee changes scope of bill proposing DNA database

PHOENIX – An Arizona Senate committee altered the scope of a bill that would have mandated all workers whose jobs required fingerprinting to submit DNA samples for a statewide database.

On Wednesday, the Transportation and Public Safety Committee approved an amendment to SB 1475 so it now focuses on samples collected from sexual assault victims.

Sen. David Livingston’s original bill said anybody legally required to give fingerprints for an application, certification or permit had to provide a DNA sample.

The new version would create a database of DNA from sexual assault kits and no longer references employees.

The amendment says a process must be established for analyzing samples from sexual assault kits “using rapid DNA identification.”

“This could improve investigations, because DNA samples would identify offenders quicker, oftentimes within hours of an assault,” Livingston said Wednesday in an emailed statement.

“With law enforcement targeting and apprehending offenders quickly, the number of victims could be reduced.”

The northwest Valley Republican said “there has been much speculation and misinformation” about the bill and that it “is limited to processes and procedures related to the collection of samples in sexual assault kits.”

However, sexual assault kits were not mentioned in the first version, which was effectively replaced by the amendment.

The bill details regulations surrounding the proposed DNA database, which would be maintained by the Arizona Department of Public Safety and would not be public record.

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to information that was in a proposed amendment, not the one that was adopted.

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