AMICUS BRIEF IN Leslie v. City of New York RE: "unauthorized dna database”

OVERVIEW

The Policing Project filed an amicus brief in Leslie v. City of New York urging the Southern District of New York to declare illegal a city police program that secretly captures and stores the DNA profiles of criminal suspects. As we explain, the police department and medical examiner’s office “overstepped carefully drawn legislative boundaries” when they “unilaterally created a program that surreptitiously captures the DNA of people who have been convicted of no crime and stores those DNA profiles.”

The technical issue before the court is whether to exercise jurisdiction to reach plaintiffs’ challenge to the program under state law. Our brief explains why reaching the issue is critical given the fundamental privacy and liberty interests at stake, and to affirm that law enforcement activities must be democratically authorized by legislative bodies.