Putting the Mayor's approach aside, the fact is that many arrests do not result in a conviction. For example, a national survey of the adjudication outcomes for felony defendants in the 75 largest counties in the country revealed that in felony assault cases, half the charges were dismissed outright, and in 14 percent of cases, the charges were reduced to a misdemeanor. A study released by the California State Assembly's Commission on the Status of African American Males in the early 1990's revealed that 64 percent of the drug arrests of whites and 81 percent of Latinos were not sustainable, and that an astonishing 92 percent of the black men arrested by police on drug charges were subsequently released for lack of evidence or inadmissible evidence. Indeed, there is a disturbing element of racial disparity that runs throughout our criminal justice system that can only be compounded by the creation of databases of persons arrested but not convicted of crimes. Racial profiling and stereotyping is a reality of our criminal justice system.
Minorities are more likely to be arrested, but no more likely than whites to use drugs.
One study of police stops on a strip of interstate in Maryland gives some insight into the nature of the problem. Over several months in 1995, a survey found that 73 percent of the cars stopped and searched were driven by African-Americans, while they made up only 14 percent of the people driving along the interstate. Now I make no secret of the ACLU's opposition to DNA data banking, even for convicted felons. We have argued and will continue to argue in cases like Landry in Massachusetts that these are intrusive, unreasonable searches made without the individualized suspicion required by the Fourth Amendment and analogous provisions of state constitutions. But, even if you accept the rulings that DNA data banking for convicted felons is permissible, either because a special need is present where persons have been convicted of crimes with high recidivism rates and the presence of biological evidence like sexual assaults, or that convicted felons have a diminished expectation of privacy, neither of those circumstances apply to persons who have simply been arrested.