This section describes several different collections of genetic data and how their use in research, commerce, and law enforcement may be relevant to the federal judiciary. It also presents critical questions about the use of these databases to aid judges.

In April of 2018, police arrested and charged Joseph James DeAngelo for a string of murders, rapes, and burglaries committed in California in the 1970s and 80s under the alias “the Golden State Killer.”[1] DeAngelo was identified using DNA, but not through traditional forensic identification methods. After years of being unable to find a match to crime scene DNA in any law enforcement databases, investigators turned to a commercial DNA database to which customers upload their DNA profiles to find relatives.[2] The search generated several leads that investigators followed until they collected DNA from DeAngelo directly and confirmed a match to the original crime-scene sample.

The identification of the Golden State Killer through a non-law-enforcement DNA database—in this case a commercial genetic-genealogy database—marked a significant change in law enforcement tactics. Since then, numerous cold-case investigations have identified suspects through similar approaches. In 2019, the Department of Justice announced an interim policy on using non-law-enforcement genetic databases to generate leads for unsolved violent crimes.[3]

In addition, the Department of Justice has provided grants to prosecutors’ offices across the country to facilitate using genetic genealogical searches to identify leads in unsolved crimes.[4] The expanded use of non-law-enforcement databases to search for and identify individuals raises technical and legal questions about consent and privacy.[5]

Law enforcement’s use of commercial genetic databases represents one example of how genetic data easily cross between domains of research, health care, commerce, and law enforcement. This section details the different forms in which genetic data are stored in these domains: public research databases, clinical databases/electronic health records, commercial or “personal genomic” platforms, and law enforcement databases. Each of these domains and their corresponding databases are intended for distinct purposes and are treated differently under the law.[6]

This section concludes with a discussion of cases where genetic data collected for commercial and research purposes are used by law enforcement, and the scientific and legal questions that may arise when reviewing such cases.