Lawmakers in Bucks Co. set to introduce bill to require DNA testing at time of arrest

Republican lawmakers in Bucks County on Wednesday, announced their intention to introduce a bill in Harrisburg that would require law enforcement officials throughout the state to collect DNA samples from anyone arrested for felonies -- or certain misdemeanors -- at the time they have their fingerprints taken.

"This bill is another tool, a key tool, in making sure we keep violent offenders off of our streets and out of our neighborhoods," said State Rep. KC Tomlinson (R-18th dist.), who co-sponsored the bill. "This bill would stop a repeated offender in their tracks. It will leave no question of someone's innocence or guilt and it gives our police officers the support they need to make sure these criminals end up where they belong: behind bars."

Tomlinson was joined by fellow State Rep. Joe Hogan (R-142nd dist.) in co-sponsoring the bill, while State Senator Frank Ferry (R-6th dist.) said he crafted a companion bill for the state senate.

As described in a by memorandum sent to legislators in Harrisburg, the bill "will require the collection of DNA samples from persons arrested for serious violent or sexual crimes. This sample-taking will be no different, practically speaking than the established process of taking an arrestee’s fingerprints."

Also, the legislation would expand the collection of DNA sample to offenders convicted of criminal homicide.

The memorandum notes that due to, what it calls a 'quirk in our state’s criminal laws," while DNA samples are collected from those convicted of other crimes, lawmakers claim that criminal homicides are a not classified as felonies, but at "their own classification of crime."

This legislation would undo that "quirk" and require collection of DNA samples from these individuals, which could then be used in cold case investigations, the memorandum notes.

Along with making sure the guilty are punished for their crimes, in discussing the proposed legislation, Ferry said that it will also be used to help keep innocent people from getting imprisoned for a crime they didn't commit.

"I think our goal as elected officials, as well as our law enforcement partners, our partners in the prosecutors office, our goal is to make sure our communities are safe," said Ferry. "And, our goal is to also ensure that those individuals who are incarcerated, who did not commit crimes, are back out on the street, living their lives. And the people that did commit those crimes are ultimately caught and punished.

During the day, Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran argued that Pennsylvania is on of 19 states that doesn't collect DNA samples when someone is arrested -- only after they have been convicted of a felony.

He said that could be too late.

"That DNA that's taken is way too late," said Harran. "We need to take DNA at the time of arrest. It's just like a fingerprint."

He claimed that he has numbers that would back up the assertion that, with additional DNA samples, law enforcement officials can cut crime throughout the communty.

"The most important part of this is that this prevents crime," he said. "Because, you're getting criminals off the street immediately."

Following the morning event, officials did not immediately disclose when these bills may make their way to the floor in Harrisburg.