Where States Stand on DNA Collection — ProPublica

Where States Stand on DNA Collection

May 5, 2009, 7:40 a.m. EDT

June 8: This graphic has been updated.

Return to "The DNA Debacle: How the Federal Government Botched the DNA Backlog Crisis."

DNA Collection From Convicted Felons

The states filled in with red below collect DNA samples from anyone convicted of a felony. The samples are turned into DNA profiles and are then uploaded to the national DNA database. As the map shows, only Idaho, Nebraska and New Hampshire don't collect DNA samples from convicted felons.

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures

DNA Collection From Some Arrestees

The 17 states filled in with red below have a law requiring the collection of DNA samples from people arrested for various crimes, even if they haven’t been convicted. The two states filled in with dark pink have passed such legislation that is awaiting the governor's signature. The 15 states filled in with light pink currently have legislation pending that would allow them to collect from arrestees, while the unfilled states neither have an arrestee law nor are considering one. Please note that while Texas already collects from people arrested for certain sex offenses, it is considering legislation that would require samples from many more categories of arrestees.

Source: FBI and ProPublica

Update: The second map has been updated to show that both Alabama and Colorado recently passed legislation requiring the collection of DNA samples from people arrested for various crimes. Florida and Missouri also recently passed such legislation, but theirs is awaiting governors' signatures.

Follow ProPublica

Most Read

Latest Stories from ProPublica

Donald Trump Controls a Publicly Traded Company. Now He Will Pick Its Regulator.

Sign Up to Screen Our New Documentary About Stillbirths

How to Reduce Formaldehyde Exposure in Your Home

How Much Formaldehyde Is in Your Car, Your Kitchen or Your Furniture? Here’s What Our Testing Found.

Republish This Story for Free

Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. You are are free to republish it so long as you do the following:

You have to credit ProPublica and any co-reporting partners. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Publication(s).” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by ProPublica.” You must link the word “ProPublica” to the original URL of the story.
If you’re republishing online, you must link to the URL of this story on propublica.org, include all of the links from our story, including our newsletter sign up language and link, and use our PixelPing tag.
If you use canonical metadata, please use the ProPublica URL. For more information about canonical metadata, refer to this Google SEO link.
You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week,” and “Portland, Ore.” to “Portland” or “here.”)
You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission. Please contact [email protected].
It’s okay to put our stories on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. You can’t state or imply that donations to your organization support ProPublica’s work.
You can’t sell our material separately or syndicate it. This includes publishing or syndicating our work on platforms or apps such as Apple News, Google News, etc.
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually. (To inquire about syndication or licensing opportunities, contact [email protected].)
You can’t use our work to populate a website designed to improve rankings on search engines or solely to gain revenue from network-based advertisements.
We do not generally permit translation of our stories into another language.
Any website our stories appear on must include a prominent and effective way to contact you.
If you share republished stories on social media, we’d appreciate being tagged in your posts. We have official accounts for ProPublica on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Copy and paste the following into your page to republish:

Current site Current page