After approval in State Senate, 28 days elapse with no Assembly action
State Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer has started an online petition to garner support to encourage the New York State Assembly to pass the All Crimes DNA bill. The State Senate passed the proposal to expand the State’s DNA database on January 31. Since then, twenty-eight days have elapsed without any action taken by the State Assembly.
“I am joining Governor Cuomo in calling on the New York State Assembly to pass this legislation as soon as possible so that it can be signed into law immediately, and local law enforcement officials can begin to put this stronger crime-solving mechanism into action,” said Ranzenhofer. “That is why I am asking the residents of the 61st Senate District to sign my online petition and join the cause to get the DNA expansion bill passed in the State Assembly.”
Residents can sign the online petition by visiting ranzenhofer.nysenate.gov.
Under existing law, over half of the criminal convictions require a DNA sample submission to the database, including every penal law felony and only 36 misdemeanor crimes in the penal law. The All Crimes DNA database would expand that list to include all felonies in State law and every penal law misdemeanor.
“Simply put, the current law stops short of being completely effective. It has hampered local law enforcement’s ability to resolve investigations in a timely manner for both victims of crimes and their families, and enabled some criminals to remain free to commit additional crimes with devastating consequences,” said Ranzenhofer. “This proposal is another tool for law enforcement to keep our residents safe and protect our community from people who continue to violate the law but remain undetected.”
Since its inception, DNA stored in the databank has been used to identify perpetrators in about 10,000 crimes, including 900 murders and 3,500 sexual assaults. Since 2006, when the DNA databank was expanded to include 36 misdemeanors, law enforcement agencies have used the information to convict 1,460 criminals.
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