Chesa Boudin, the district attorney of San Francisco (United States) revealed Monday that the local police had taken to using DNA taken from victims of sexual assault to create a database.

The goal: to compare them to evidence from other crime scenes and link them to other cases, reports The HuffPost according to information from the

San Francisco Chronicle

.

The prosecutor said he had no knowledge of this type of practice until last week.

The facts came to light when a rape victim's DNA, dating back several years, was used to link that person to a more recent property crime.

According to Chesa Boudin, this system has been used for “many, many years” and the established database “could contain thousands of DNA pieces of information”.

Law enforcement retaining and using DNA collected from survivors' sexual assault exams to incriminate them hurts survivors.



Public safety demands that we support sexual assault survivors and end any practices that deter them from coming forward.https://t.co/uBEz38MCT3

— Chesa Boudin 博徹思 (@chesaboudin) February 14, 2022

"The authorities must never discourage the victims"

Normally, emergency kits are used by the police in the event of a rape on a victim in order to collect bodily fluids and try to identify traces of the DNA of the attacker.

But this case causes an outcry because this practice could in particular discourage rape victims from filing a complaint.

“Public safety demands that we support victims of sexual assault and end all practices that deter them from coming forward,” Chesa Boudin posted on Twitter.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott also spoke about the case.

“Authorities should never discourage victims of crime from cooperating with the police.

And if it's true that DNA taken from a victim of rape or sexual assault was used by the department to identify and apprehend that person as a suspect in another crime, then I will commit to ending to practice,” he said.

Books

“Vertidog” by Léonie de Rudder: The dizziness of a French dog walker in San Francisco

World

Coronavirus: In San Francisco, "social pressure at school" to vaccinate its children

  • World

  • Rape

  • DNA

  • United States

  • san francisco

  • Police

  • 0 comment

  • 0 share

    • Share on Messenger

    • Share on Facebook

    • Share on Twitter

    • Share on Flipboard

    • Share on Pinterest

    • Share on Linkedin

    • Send by Mail

  • To safeguard

  • A fault ?

  • To print