Local DNA database approved

Huntington Beach police say a new local DNA database announced recently by Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckus has merit, but it won’t radically change a DNA collection program that is already ahead of the game.

“There are robberies, rapes, murders, all kinds of crimes, that we’ve been able to solve via the use of DNA,” said Huntington Beach police chief Ken Small.

“From that perspective, having greater numbers of people to match a sample with is a very good thing.”

The program, funded by an Orange County Board of Supervisors vote last week, will have the district attorney require a DNA test as part of criminal probation conditions for all crimes.

That information will go into a database that local law enforcement can use to track down suspects. Law enforcement officials have called the local database the first program of its kind.

Crime scene investigators in Huntington Beach already take DNA samples whenever it seems feasible, said Sgt. Dave Dierking of the department’s crimes against persons unit.

“We almost do it as a standard procedure,” he said. “We have processed scenes that I know various other cities and counties don’t. It’s not unusual for us to do a complete work-up on a recovered stolen car, knowing it was probably involved in other crimes.”

But the district attorney’s office also sees DNA as a way to break the cycle of local crime.

“People who commit crimes tend to do it in a cluster,” said Susan Schroeder, district attorney spokeswoman. “We want to make sure that if somebody is committing crimes over and over again in a limited area, we catch up to that person.”

The database would help defendants as well, because the wrongfully accused would have a new way to prove their innocence, Schroeder said.

Some have worried about the possible resource strain that could occur when every crime scene has a chance of a DNA match.

But Small and Dierking said their investigators were not stretched, and the department’s contract with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for analysis gave them little to complain about.

Small said the use of DNA will only increase in the future.

“I think it [the use of DNA] obviously is going to grow and grow,” he said. “We’re pretty far ahead of the curve here as far as cities in California are concerned.”