Panel OKs bill to put all felons in DNA data bank

TALLAHASSEE — Gang members and stalkers would be among the new additions to the state's growing DNA data bank under a bill that received initial approval Wednesday from a state House committee.

"I suspect a day will come when DNA will be as pervasive throughout the United States as fingerprints," said state Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart. "I think today juries expect it. Their logic is, 'If the offender is at the crime scene, where's his DNA?''"

The bill is Snyder's first as a lawmaker. He was elected in November to replace former Rep. Joe Negron, R-Stuart.

The retired Martin County Sheriff's Office major was spared the hazing that sometimes accompanies freshman lawmakers presenting their first bill. Instead, the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee, of which Snyder is vice chairman, gave the bill (HB 687) their unanimous approval.

"It was such a good bill that none of us could vote no," said committee Chairwoman Sandy Adams, R-Orlando.

The bill would expand the DNA data bank to include mandatory samples from any felony offender, any convicted gang member and some misdemeanor violators, including stalkers and voyeurs.

The DNA data bank, created in 1989, currently has 344,156 specimens that have helped in 5,709 investigations, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The original law required samples for offenses related to sexual battery or lewd and lascivious conduct.

In 2001, a timetable was created to expand the list of felonies that would require samples. But lawmakers never financed the expansion, which was scheduled to include any felony by 2005. Snyder's bill removes the need for specific appropriation.

FDLE would need $3 million in the first year to implement the bill and $830,000 a year thereafter, according to a House staff analysis. FDLE is seeking $3 million in its 2007-08 budget.

The analysis said the law's impact on local governments would be insignificant because of the small number of offenders projected to be added to the database.

Snyder, who was asked by House leaders to carry the bill, said he wasn't too nervous presenting his first bill to a committee.

"I was aware that it was my first one, but I knew it was the right thing to do. I knew it was good public policy," said Snyder, who retired from the sheriff's office after election.

"There is some respect for my 30-something years in law enforcement, so I have to be very careful to put my stamp on something and be sure that I've thought it out and it's the right thing to do."