He wants Congress to pass a law that will give local police the right to get a DNA sample from people they arrest for a violent crime. Opponents of Glasscock's request argue that mandatory DNA sampling of arrestees violates privacy rights of those who have been taken into custody. The American Civil Liberties Union worries that these DNA samples might become part of a national databank that would subject innocent people to widespread screening during criminal investigations. Their argument is less than compelling. We already have a national databank of fingerprints taken from criminal suspects.
Cops use it to help identify the perpetrators of crimes.
You'd think that a left-leaning organization like the ACLU would champion the use of DNA for this purpose. Sadly it doesn't. This is not one of those times. It's nonsensical to argue that DNA sampling of a crime suspect violates that person's right to privacy when cops are already empowered to take their fingerprints and place them in a national databank. Raising such an argument seems like a knee-jerk reaction to a pretty sensible request.