If you live in Colorado, your DNA will now be collected upon arrest.  It will then be stored in a database until it’s proved you are innocent.  The problem is, there are no repercussions to agencies that don’t expunge the data properly.

This is Colorado’s version of Katie’s Law, in which law enforcement officials can take your DNA from you when you’ve been suspected of a felony.  State lawmakers claim it’s going to save people’s lives.

The law is named for Katie Sepich, a 22-year-old New Mexico woman raped and murdered in 2003. Authorities collected her killer’s DNA from her body, but had no match. At the time, they did not know that Gabriel Avilla later arrested for burglary, had also killed Sepich. Avilla skipped bail after his burglary arrest. Only after he was caught and convicted three years later was a DNA sample taken and matched to the Sepich slaying.

So, the system worked.  It just took a little while longer.  If he had had the DNA sample taken upon arrest, it still wouldn’t have brought Katie back.

The state will begin developing the systems necessary to collect the DNA in July. Agencies will begin collecting DNA from felony arrestees in September of 2010. Funding comes from an initial $75,000 appropriation for start-up costs and a $2.50 surcharge for felony and misdemeanor convictions, as well as traffic tickets.

Coloradans will be footing the bill for this one.  If you get any type of conviction or a traffic ticket, there will now be an extra fee so you can “help” the state in its quest for justice.

“This is just an identifier. It’s going to exonerate people who are innocent and it’s a tool that will allow us to convict the guilty as well,” Tipton said.

And it will never be used against anyone.  Honest.  They’d never “accidentally” keep the information when it should have been destroyed.

The bill once required the state to pay $25,000 if records weren’t properly expunged when required, but that provision was eliminated amid concerns about unfairly burdening smaller agencies.

That’s nice for the smaller agencies, but what about regular citizens?  What happens when a smaller agency doesn’t expunge the record and their records are tied to larger agencies?  Your DNA will still be in the system.  All a smaller agency has to say is, “Oops, sorry about that,” and they’re off the hook.  No fine for them.

“I really don’t see it as an invasion of privacy, in that if you’re not guilty, the data is destroyed,” State Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus said. Isgar also supported the bill.

This law is a gross invasion of privacy and removes civil liberties that were presumed untouchable.  It’s an invasion of privacy because the Supreme Court said it is.  You are presumed innocent until proven guilty.  As a state, you don’t get to pick and choose which laws you want to follow.  Being presumed innocent does not mean innocent but let me take your DNA.

For the truly paranoid, this evidence could be planted at the scene of a crime.  It’s been done before with items not so damning as DNA.  You may or may not be vindicated, but, in the meantime, your life, career, and reputation will be lost.