The past several months have been full of contrasts and contradictions. We have seen fascinating cases solved illustrating the incredible effectiveness of forensic DNA technology. We have seen legal cases filed illustrating the fear of DNA’s expanded use. Governments have announced intentions for national expansion and for the first time a government has announced it will reduce the scope of inclusion in its database. And, after years of legislative discussion and debate, we have seen some countries finally pass DNA legislation and begin to recognize its benefits while others continue to struggle with practical and political issues preventing the implementation of law enforcement’s most effective crime fighting tool.

On August 10, 1990, Jennifer Schuett, age 8, was abducted from her bedroom, driven to a remote location, sexually assaulted, and her throat was slit from ear to ear. She was left for dead. She could not scream. Her voice box was severed. Over 12 hours later, she was discovered by children playing in a nearby field. Never giving up, the police of the Dickinson Police Department sought the help of the FBI and evidence was sent for advanced DNA testing. The extracted DNA profile matched a Dennis Bradford. On October 7, 2009, Dickinson police issued a warrant for his arrest.

On the same day, October 7, 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action law suit challenging California’s Arrestee DNA database statute. The challenge is to California’s law, Proposition 69, which passed overwhelmingly, not by the state legislature but by popular referendum vote in 2004.

For the first time a country is going backwards in terms of the nature and extent to which it maintains DNA profiles in its National Database—albeit, not voluntarily. The Home Office in the United Kingdom has announced that, in compliance with the European Court of Human Rights decision in S and Marper vs. the UK, it will no longer seek to retain the profiles of those individuals arrested but not ultimately convicted. Approximately 850,000 such profiles that exist on the database may not be there for very much longer.

In contrast to the UK’s “climb down,” police and forensics experts from across the United Arab Emirates met on September 30, 2009, to consider setting up a nationwide DNA database that could include every resident of the UAE. At present, DNA samples are taken only from convicted criminals or suspects. “What we would like is to start thinking about taking samples from all of the UAE population, local and expatriate,” said Dr Ahmed Marzooqi, the chairman of the Emirates DNA Working Group, who acknowledged that the project could take a decade. Acknowledging the potential role such a database would have for use in natural disasters and missing persons cases, Dr.Marzooqi also said, “This will control crime drastically. It will reduce the number of unnecessary and innocent suspects and reveal the criminal much faster with scientific proof.”

There are also contrasts in legislative efforts around the world. After years of debate and discussion about establishing a DNA database in Italy, and with the intent of joining the information sharing Prüm Treaty, the Italian government has finally passed legislation for a crime fighting database that will include arrestees and convicted offenders for all intentional crimes (excluding financial offenses). For arrestees and suspects, the sample collection will be authorized by the judge.