Registrants in some Texas counties have received telephone calls telling them they need to come in and give a DNA sample.
Texas Voices investigated and, finding that these calls were legitimate, issued information and warnings to its members. “Texas Rangers have identified 3,300 registered sex offenders in Texas who owe the state a DNA sample for entry into CODIS,” they found on the DPS website. “Texas Rangers are working closely alongside local law enforcement agencies to collect DNA from sex offenders and qualifying felons who owe a DNA sample for entry into CODIS.” Further information from Texas Voices warned against scams using this very technique that target registrants
NARSOL feels this is an issue worth informing all of our readers about. If law enforcement in Texas, despite — as all law enforcement is — being so short-staffed and overworked, was able to find time to comb through the entire Texas registry containing nearly 100,000 records and identify 3,300 registrants, many who completed their sentences twenty or more years ago, it is most likely happening or will happen in other states. Texas law and the law in virtually every state requires a DNA sample from everyone on its registry.
No matter what state you are in, if you get a telephone call telling you that you need to come in and give a DNA sample, this is what NARSOL advises:
Thank them for the call and tell them you will call right back to arrange a time. Then promptly hang up. Call whatever office the caller said he was from and ask them if they were calling people on the registry about DNA samples.
In this day of telephone scams using just about every conceivable angle and technique to separate us from our money, we must be cautious and wise.
Sandy, a NARSOL board member, is communications director for NARSOL, editor-in-chief of the Digest, and a writer for the Digest and the NARSOL website. Additionally, she participates in updating and managing the website and assisting with a variety of organizational tasks.
Here in Pennsylvania; we call The State Police if we get Scam Calls, and they always tell us: “Unless we send you Official Postal Mail telling you to come in to one of The Barracks to give a Sample, HANG UP!” If the person calls back and they threaten us, we then call The Local, Then State Police. They in turn, contact the Pennsylvania Department of Criminal Investigation and take it from there. Besides; The State already HAS My DNA on Record!
Well that’s just swell, dna being the most easily manipulable form of “evidence”. They can mix you up with someone else’s dna just by throwing some clothes in your laundry. Or going through your trash.
Thank you for always helping educate the people who’s lives are greatly affected
Thank you for always helping educate the people who’s lives are greatly affected In Virginia I advise people to call their local law enforcement a report request copy of that report and call Virginia VSP as well.
I’m sure the Texas Rangers are aware of the scams perpetuated on registrants, so it doesn’t make sense to notify registrants through the exact means that the scammers use. Beyond that, I wouldn’t think a phone call meets legal notice requirements (nearly always saying such notice must be in writing) if they wanted to arrest someone for not providing one.
There’s a very big difference between LE’s obligation to collect a DNA sample and a person’s obligation to provide one. I’m willing to bet that there’s no legal way to require a DNA sample from those whose offense(s) predate the law requiring them. Consequently, this sounds like a way to trick those individuals into providing one “voluntarily.” Contrary to many courts, I would argue that no act can be “voluntary” if it was the result of trickery or coercion.
I was almost a victim of this scam. I got a call from someone who said he was with the sheriff’s department. He told me they were coming to arrest me because I had failed to supply them with another DNA sample. I told him I had not gotten anything in the mail requesting another DNA sample. Eventually he told me to go to Walmart and get some paypal cards. When he told me that I hung up the phone and called my local sheriff and he told me that it was a scam.
Good thing DNA can be used to exhonorate! Far too many sexual assault convictions ensue without sound evidence. Proper evidence must manifestly be both accurate and valid. However questions of the admittance of improper evidence is to easy. Remarkably, every time I’ve found myself contesting FTR the bench makes a point of disqualifying potential jurors through the use of lines of inquiries during voir about passed sexual assault victimization or assault in general within the assembled persons. If a potential juror admits being a victim, the judge dismisses the person. And does so within the view of the rest of the panel, the walk of rejection.
This has a certain and dramatic effect on the remaining potentials, as it appears victim’s need not be heard, or their vote does not count, or unreasonably unable to weigh facts objectively. Fair trails? ,not so much but they do try.