State Panel Approves Police Use Of Controversial Familial DNA Records Searches

A state commission voted this morning to adopt a controversial policy allowing police to perform familial DNA searches in certain criminal cases.

The 9-2 vote by the state Commission on Forensic Science lets cops investigating cases that pose a public safety threat—including murders, rapes, and arsons—to broaden DNA database searches to include close, rather than exact DNA matches. The technique is intended to show investigators close family members of the person whose DNA they have—a father or a son, say—in order to guide the investigation. Much of the state's database consists of samples obtained from people convicted of crimes, including offenses such as trespassing.

The governor-appointed commission's approval came with the strong backing of New York City prosecutors, as well as the father of murdered Howard Beach jogger Karina Vetrano. Phil Vetrano became a vocal supporter of familial testing when the DNA retrieved from his daughter's body failed to produce a match and the trail in the search for the killer seemed to go cold. The technique ultimately wasn't used, and family members of the suspect who was arrested...