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                  The Associated Press State & Local Wire

The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.

                       June 2, 2002, Sunday, BC cycle

SECTION: State and Regional

LENGTH: 362 words

HEADLINE: Iberia Parish to take DNA of all arrested

DATELINE: NEW IBERIA, La.

BODY:
The Iberia Parish sheriff's office plans to begin taking DNA samples
routinely from suspects, a move strongly opposed by a civil liberties group.

A database of DNA profiles, known as the Combined DNA Index System, will be
running this fall in the state, Louisiana State Police say. Louisiana will
be the 49th state to use the national database. The state plans to enter
more than 12,000 DNA profiles of Louisiana prison inmates. The Iberia Parish
sheriff plans to take saliva swabs of suspects, beginning in the fall, as
well.

"All arrestees are going to be swabbed," Sheriff Sid Hebert said. "If we can
legally take prints, why can't we take saliva?"

Joe Cook, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
Louisiana said the routine collection of DNA samples for submission to a
database violates one's constitutional right to be presumed innocent until
proven guilty.

"There ought to be a procedure for destroying that profile if there's not
justification for you to be in the system in the first place," Cook said.

DNA experts say that just because a suspect's DNA profile matches a profile
in the database does not mean the suspect is assumed to be guilty.

"It's not like you get a hit and you'll be arrested," said Tammany Northrup,
DNA manager at the State Police Crime Laboratory. "They will take that
(database) hit and go to a judge to get another sample from the suspect."

Cook said DNA has the potential to be misused because it contains genetic
information on sex, hereditary diseases and race.

"There's opportunity for rampant abuse," Cook said. "Insurance companies and
private companies would love to get their hands on this information."

Ray Wickenheiser, director of the Acadiana Criminalistics Laboratory, said
labs do not use the genetic part of DNA that identifies race and diseases.
Twenty-six bands of the DNA structure are used for matching purposes only,
he said.

"What it really boils down to is you become a human serial number,"
Wickenheiser said. "It would be easier to win the Powerball than it is in
having 26 bands the same.

Wickenheiser added that it is a felony to misuse DNA samples.



LOAD-DATE: June 3, 2002