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Minor Collection

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill that requires law enforcement to get authorization before collecting DNA from a minor, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This approval can come from the parent, legal guardian, or attorney in addition to from the child, or from a judge, it adds.

EFF, which supported the bill, says DNA can reveal a lot of information about a person and that children should be protected from the ramifications of having that information in law enforcement's hands from a young age. It adds that the bill, A.B. 1584, also requires police to expunge samples that don't implicate the minor in a crime after two years.

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a San Diego assemblywoman, proposed the bill, which the Voice of San Diego's Sara Libby notes on Twitter came in response to an article there that reported that law enforcement was relying on a loophole to collect minors' DNA. In February 2017, the Voice of San Diego reported that police were collecting DNA samples from minors with signed consent from the minor, but not a parent, and storing them locally for "investigative purposes," to get around state prohibitions of collecting DNA from minors.