Governor Martin O'Malley Delivers Public Safety Policy Lecture to University of Baltimore Law Students
BALTIMORE, MD (September 9, 2009) – Governor Martin O’Malley delivered a lecture on Maryland’s new DNA collection law before a group of over 150 law students from the University of Baltimore, part of former Attorney General Joseph Curran’s Law and Public Policy Series. The Governor’s lecture focused on DNA, its impact on public safety generally, and the legal merits of Maryland’s recently reformed DNA collection law specifically.
“Protection of the public’s safety is the most solemn obligation of any government, at any level, anywhere in the world. In Maryland, the public’s safety is essential to every part of our mission,” said Governor O’Malley. “In a society where we value the dignity of every individual, the merger of DNA technology with innovative public policy and dedicated law enforcement allow a society to keep innocent people out of jail and even off of death row, all while giving government and law enforcement a powerful tool for taking violent criminals out of our neighborhoods and thus preventing crimes before they happen.”
Maryland has maintained a DNA database since 1994 when the Maryland General Assembly enacted legislation that required all convicted sex offenders to submit DNA samples. As DNA collection and analysis proved to be an exceptional crime-fighting tool, the General Assembly expanded the boundaries for collection of DNA from convicted criminals. As a result of legislation pushed by the O’Malley-Brown Administration and signed by Governor O’Malley, individuals charged with crimes of violence, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree burglary or attempting these crimes are now also required to provide a DNA sample. The use of DNA technology to identify offenders and solve criminal cases quickly is a vital instrument in Maryland’s mission to provide safe and sustainable communities for every Maryland resident.
After clearing an inherited backlog of over 24,000 uncollected DNA samples, the O’Malley-Brown Administration achieved its 1,000th a year ago, having matched as many samples in two years as had been matched in Maryland during the previous eight. And by the end of its second year in office, the Administration uploaded 46,400 DNA samples to the federal government’s combined DNA index system. To date, DNA has been used to make 155 arrests, including 15 individuals who were arrested for homicide, and 76 arrested for sexual offenses, in the past two and a half years. And last year DNA was one of several tools and strategies which allowed Maryland to achieve its second greatest statewide reduction in homicides since 1985. Since January of this year, when the newly reformed DNA collection law took affect, the State has collected 7,818 new samples, achieved 25 total hits, and used these hits to arrest four violent individuals who might otherwise be on the streets committing further crimes.
Recently, Governor O’Malley set the goals for the Administration of reducing violent crime by 10 percent each year, while reducing crimes against women and children by 25 percent.
