Sexual Assault

“By taking steps to eliminate its so-called erotic services section, Craigslist has struck a blow against the exploitation of vulnerable teenagers.

But this action must be followed up with smart enforcement and the assurance that the site does not again become a cyber hub for teenage prostitution.”

Brown was part of a multi-state task force to ensure that Craigslist took action to stop exploitation on its site. His office will participate in monitoring Craigslist compliance with the terms announced today.

RICHMOND-- California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced a “major expansion” of California’s DNA laboratory and database, preparing the state to begin collecting DNA samples from every felony arrestee beginning January 1, 2009.

"Today's major expansion of the state laboratory prepares California to collect DNA from every felony arrestee starting in 2009,' California Attorney General Brown told a news conference at the Jan Bashinkski DNA Laboratory in Richmond. 'California's DNA program is giving local law enforcement critical investigative leads in thousands of unsolved crimes,' Brown added.

Since Proposition 69 passed in 2004, the state laboratory has uploaded an average of nearly 200,000 DNA profiles annually. When law enforcement begins collecting DNA from every adult felony arrestee in January 2009, the quantity of DNA submissions is estimated to increase to 390,000 per year.

In preparation for the incoming DNA, the state has expanded its laboratories and storage facilities in Richmond by approximately 28,000 square feet.

At today’s grand opening ceremony, Attorney General Brown announced that California’s DNA database, which currently houses more than 1 million offender DNA profiles, has completed a $10 million expansion to accommodate the more than 2 million samples expected over the next 5 years as a result of Proposition 69 expansions, starting in 2009.

Susan Fisher, the Governor’s Crime Victims Advocate, joined Attorney General Brown in making today’s announcement.

The California Attorney General’s Office has the third largest DNA database in the world, just behind national databases in the United States and United Kingdom. The current DNA budget is approximately $31.5 million, $28 million of which is Proposition 69 funding.

To date, the state laboratory has reported over 6,000 hits, links between crime scene evidence and an offender in the DNA database or to other crime scenes. These hits continue to solve crimes and improve public safety in California.

The Bureau of Forensic Services is the scientific arm of the Attorney General's Office whose mission is to assist the criminal justice system. Forensic scientists collect, analyze, and compare physical evidence from crime scenes or persons. They also provide criminalistics, blood alcohol, and related forensic science information services to state and local law enforcement agencies, district attorneys, and the courts.

For more information on Prop 69 and the state’s DNA program visit: http://ag.ca.gov/bfs/prop69.php

SACRAMENTO—California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced a new DNA search policy that will improve the ability of local law enforcement to investigate unsolved violent crimes by providing new investigative leads.

“California will help local law enforcement catch violent criminals by providing, under special circumstances, the identity of a person in the DNA database who is the close relative of a suspect,” Attorney General Brown told the California District Attorneys Association at their annual DNA/Cold Case Summit. “This new technique will assist local law enforcement with unsolved crimes committed by killers and sex offenders.”

Currently, the state laboratory alerts local law enforcement when a crime scene sample exactly matches--at all 26 genetic markers--the DNA of an offender in the state offender database. 15 or more shared markers indicate that the person in the database could be a close relative of the source of the crime scene evidence. Under California’s new search technique, the state laboratory will release this relative’s identity to local law enforcement if the agency adheres to a strict protocol to ensure that personal privacy is carefully protected.

California’s DNA offender database currently contains more than 1 million profiles from persons convicted of any felony and those arrested or charged with a homicide or sex offense. To date, the laboratory has released more than 5,000 exact matches, cold hits which provide key evidence to help solve crimes.

California’s new search technique imposes multiple conditions, as specified in the attached policy bulletin, which must be met before the California Department of Justice will release the identity of a suspect’s relative. This process was developed to strike an effective balance between privacy concerns and the need to provide information that may solve a violent crime.

If there is a serious public safety risk, for example a violent sex offender is at large, state scientists may also search the database in an effort to identify possible relatives of the suspect. If such a search returns multiple results, scientists will use a kinship analysis to determine whether any of the matches are likely to be a relative. The local agency must then conduct an additional genetic test to confirm the relatedness.

At more than 1 million DNA profiles, the California Attorney General’s Office has the third largest DNA database in the world, just behind the United States as a whole and the United Kingdom. Each month, the laboratory releases more than 200 cold hits, matches between crime scene samples and persons in the state database.

In September 2007, Attorney General Brown announced that the backlog of DNA samples collected from convicted felons and certain arrestees--which stood at 295,000 in July 2006--had been completely eliminated.

California’s new DNA search policy is attached. For more information on DNA testing in California visit: http://ag.ca.gov/bfs/

LOS ANGELES – California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced that the backlog of DNA samples collected from convicted felons—which stood at 295,000 in July 2006—has been eliminated.

At a news conference with Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, Brown said: “The state has the third largest DNA database in the world so eliminating the backlog is a major milestone in combating crime in California. The next phase—collecting DNA samples from all persons arrested for felonies in California—will begin January 1, 2009. I will use the full resources at my command to meet this challenging goal.”

Proposition 69, passed in November 2004, required all convicted felons to submit a DNA sample to the CAL-DNA Data Bank Program. In response, the Program immediately hired and trained new DNA analysts and started a statewide DNA sample collection training program. An executive order, requiring expedited DNA collection from all incarcerated felons and parolees resulted in a peak of 70,000 submissions in April of 2005—over twice the number received in the year prior to Proposition 69—for a total submission in 2005 alone of about 300,000 samples.

The Attorney General’s Office, in collaboration with the Governor, identified the critical need to eliminate the developing backlog. Utilizing existing personnel in a special overtime project, along with the validation and implementation of new methods, the Program boosted analytical capacity to over 40,000 DNA samples per month. Increased efforts to enhance recruitment and retention allowed CAL-DNA to find the trained analysts necessary to meet the next wave of Proposition 69 mandates—the implementation of the all-adult-felon-arrestee provision in January 2009—estimated at 390,000 submissions per year.

In 1990 CAL-DNA was established in the Division of Law Enforcement, Bureau of Forensic Services in DOJ; and in 1994 funding for sex offender collections was obtained. The expected number of offender DNA samples submitted at that time was 40,000 per year. After 10 years, the inclusion of violent felons and other qualified offenders in 2004 had expanded the database to about 300,000.

California Attorney General’s Office now has the third largest DNA Database in the world, just behind the United States as a whole and Great Britain. CAL-DNA has over 940,000 in the searchable database, known as the CAL-DNA Data Bank, as part of the National DNA Index System, which is operated and overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) Unit.

CAL-DNA has to date reported over 5,000 offender hits, or linkages established by a common DNA profile between crime evidence and an offender in the database. These hits continue to solve crimes and improve public safety.

A press release with charts is attached.