MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Legislature’s finance committee Thursday approved a plan in Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s executive budget that would dramatically expand the state’s powers to seize DNA from crime suspects.
Wisconsin currently takes DNA only from convicted felons and sex offenders. Walker’s plan would require police to seize DNA from anyone arrested for a felony and a host of sex-related misdemeanors, including fourth-degree sexual assault, prostitution and exposing one’s genitals to a child. The measure also would mandate that anyone convicted of any crime submit a DNA sample.
Convicts would be able to request the state crime lab expunge their DNA profiles from the state’s database if the convictions have been reversed, set aside or vacated. Arrestees could request records be expunged if a year has passed and no charges have been filed, the charges have been dismissed or the person was acquitted.
The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates the collection expansion would pump an additional 68,000 DNA samples into the state and federal government’s DNA databases annually. Walker’s budget sets out nearly $6 million for the expansion, with most of the money coming through an existing $250 surcharge on felony convicts and a new $200 surcharge on misdemeanor convicts.
“As we look at the benefits of this, I hope you’ll think carefully and recognize this is really about protecting our citizens,” Joint Finance Committee member Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, said before the committee voted on the plan.
DNA is considered a foolproof identifier. Law enforcement officials contend more DNA profiles in government databanks will help them identify suspects quickly and clear unsolved crimes.
Civil rights advocates, though, see expanded collection as an invasion of privacy. The fiscal bureau noted the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide within the coming weeks whether Maryland’s DNA-upon-arrest law violates arrestees’ expectation of privacy.
“There are better ways to use the millions of dollars in operating and capital costs this proposal will waste,” Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Wisconsin chapter, said in a statement.
The Republican-controlled committee modified Walker’s plan slightly, pushing back the plan’s start dates by months to give the state time to digest the Supreme Court’s decision. The panel also barred taking DNA at arrest for misdemeanors. Harsdorf, who suggested the modifications, said Republicans were concerned taking DNA upon arrest for misdemeanors was too broad.
Democrats complained the expansion should be debated as a stand-alone bill.
“The Supreme Court of the United States is wrestling with this issue. We should wait and see what they say,” Sen. Bob Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, said. “This is too important an issue not to have a public hearing. It is major policy for the state.”
But Harsdorf said the committee can’t wait.
“I’m convinced this is going to be beneficial in catching career criminals and saving lives and saving dollars,” Harsdorf said.
The committee also voted to erase language in the budget that would have allowed judges to place people under domestic abuse and harassment restraining orders on GPS monitoring. The spending plan would have set out $3 million in general purpose revenue for a state Justice Department grant program for local tracking efforts.
Lawmakers have been looking for ways to protect restraining order petitioners in the wake of a mass shooting in Brookfield last fall. Radcliffe Haughton bought a gun two days after his wife took out a restraining order against him, went to the spa where she worked and killed her and two other women.
But the fiscal bureau noted in a memo people subjected to tracking could raise constitutional challenges alleging unreasonable search or seizure.
Committee Republicans were clearly uncomfortable with the proposal. Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, one of the committee’s co-chairs, said it’s unclear whether the plan would do any good since no other state has tried it.
He moved to delete the governor’s language and replace it with $250,000 for counties to start GPS tracking through restraining orders on a test basis.
The committee approved Nygren’s plan 15-1.
