DNA Technology Can Create Unbelievable Suspect Sketches

Here’s why this should scare you.

Unique technology can now take a DNA sample left at a crime scene and turn it into a composite sketch.

Law enforcement agencies say it's helped them make major breakthroughs in cases old and new. But critics claim the technology is based on thin science and could end up ensnaring innocent people.

DNA sketches are the result of something called phenotyping, essentially painting a picture of what people look like based on a DNA sample obtained by police. Genes determine how we look, so sequencing developed from DNA samples can be used to try to predict someone’s eye, hair and skin color in a sketch. Facial features and face shape are also included, but they’re much harder to forecast.

For many law enforcement agencies, the pictures they're using come from a Virginia company called Parabon Nanolabs. Its team is creating sketches using a system called "Snapshot." A video featured on Parabon's website details the process, saying, "As the program sifts through billions of pieces of genetic information, it slowly begins to build a suspect’s appearance. We run it through the Snapshot algorithms and produce predictions about that person."

Records show that since 2011, the Department of Defense has poured more than $1 million into Parabon to develop Snapshot. Now, agencies across the country are paying as much as $4,000 for sketches the company says can generate leads and narrow suspect lists. It's widely used with police departments large and small from across the country requesting and then raving about the DNA sketches obtained for their cases.

The wide use of this technology concerns Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union who first wrote about DNA phenotype sketching back in 2016, before it really took off.

Stanley fears the sketches could detour or harm investigations, reinforce racial bias, or be used to establish probable cause against innocent people, ensnaring them in criminal investigations. And while he says he understands the desire of law enforcement and the families of victims to close cases, he says this type of sketching shouldn't be used for any serious purpose. Stanley called it science fiction.  (Circa, November 29, 2018)
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Using this undeveloped and non-reviewed technology in law enforcement investigations is a serious concern. It is likely to lead to mis-identification and can be used to establish probable cause where none exists. Mistakes happen; we have just see how a Woman Spent Months in Jail Because Cops Thought Cotton Candy Was Meth. How long will a person spend in jail when they are mis-identified because of a DNA sketch?

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