California is certainly no pioneer in the transition to an “all felons” database. In fact, as a result of the passage of Prop. 69, it has become the thirty-sixth state in the U.S. to adopt all-felon legislation and, if the current trend continues, it will not be the last. It is estimated that by 2006, forty-five states will have some type of all-felon law. However, the writers of Prop. 69 took it a step farther. The law also mandates DNA collection and submission into the Data Bank from registered sex and arson offenders, juveniles adjudicated of any felony, anyone housed in mental health or sex offender treatment programs for felony offenses, and all arrestees for murder, voluntary manslaughter, any previously qualifying sex offense, or attempts to commit any of these crimes. Furthermore, beginning in 2009, any adult arrested for a felony offense will be compelled to submit a DNA sample. With the addition of these provisions, the sample submission rate for the California Data Bank is expected to increase from 40,000 samples per year to over 200,000 per year.

From Blood to Buccal
An increase in submissions of this magnitude has required the laboratory responsible for processing these samples, the Jan Bashinski DNA Laboratory in Richmond, CA to completely reinvent the way samples are collected and processed. The first step was to change the source of the DNA being collected. In the fall of 2004, California switched from collecting liquid blood as its source of offender DNA to oral cheek cells (also known as buccal cells).

The change from blood to buccal was critical for a number of reasons. Collecting liquid blood is expensive to the state and collecting agencies. The state sends out DNA collection kits to all prisons, police and sheriff’s departments, and state hospitals that have occasion to submit samples from qualifying offenders. These kits are made of heavy cardboard and contain two blood tubes to be filled in addition to a cheek swab and fingerprinting materials. They are expensive to create as well as to ship due to the weight of their contents which includes packing foam to protect the glass blood tubes. In order to collect blood from an offender, the collecting agency must employ a phlebotomist to draw the sample. To offset these costs, the state is required to reimburse $30.00 for every blood sample submitted from a non-state agency.

Liquid blood collection is an invasive method employing a sharp needle which exposes the collector as well as the collectee to the risk of physical injury and the cost of sharps disposal. Liquid blood is also potentially very dangerous for laboratory personnel. There are a number of blood borne pathogens circulating in the human population including HIV and hepatitis, just to name a few. Robotics and automation have limited the duration and amount of contact that laboratory personnel must have with blood samples, but the possibility remains for a criminalist or laboratory technician to become infected through the course of their duties. As buccal samples are noninvasive and dry quickly, they do not carry the same level ofrisk.

Converting from liquid blood submissions to buccal does away with the risks of accidental injury and exposure to infection. Since no phlebotomist is needed to collect oral cheek cells, the state saves $30.00 per sample. There are also significant savings from changing the collection kits because no expensive blood tubes or heavy packing materials are needed. The new kit consists of a plastic mailing/return pouch, one Bode Buccal DNA Collector, a specimen information card, disposable plastic gloves, a desiccated transport pouch, and fingerprinting materials.