Police Use DNA Phenotyping To Limit Pool of Suspects To 15,000 (vice.com) 50
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: The Queensland, Australia police have used DNA phenotyping for the first time ever in hopes of leading to a breakthrough for a 1982 murder. The department partnered with a U.S.-based company called Parabon NanoLabs to create a profile image of the murder suspect, a Caucasian man with long blonde hair. Police claim that this image was generated using blood samples found at the scene of the murder of a man from 40 years ago; according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation this is the first time "investigative genetic genealogy" has been used in Queensland.
This image does not factor in any environmental characteristics, such as tattoos, facial hair, and scars, and cannot determine the age or body mass of the suspect. However, Queensland investigators have published the image online and are offering a $500,000 reward and indemnity from prosecution to anyone who might have information about the suspect. The image is a vague rendering of a man that does not provide any more information than the sketch that the department already has of the suspect. This further perpetuates the hyper-surveillance of any man who resembles the image. Parabon NanoLabs has already been criticized by criminal justice and privacy experts for disseminating images that implicate too broad a pool of suspects.
The Queensland police department said that the DNA sample from the case generated a genealogy tree of "15,000 'linked' individuals" and they have not been able to find a close match yet. Instead of facing the possibility that DNA phenotyping may not be an effective tool for narrowing down a suspect, the police department's strategy is to ask the public for their DNA samples. Criminologist Xanthe Mallett said in a press release that to help police find a match, people can "opt-in" to share their own DNA samples with investigators through DNA services such as Family Tree and GEDMatch. "Many members of the public that see this generated image will be unaware that it's a digital approximation, that age, weight, hairstyle, and face shape may be very different, and that accuracy of skin/hair/eye color is approximate," said Callie Schroeder, the Global Privacy Counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
This image does not factor in any environmental characteristics, such as tattoos, facial hair, and scars, and cannot determine the age or body mass of the suspect. However, Queensland investigators have published the image online and are offering a $500,000 reward and indemnity from prosecution to anyone who might have information about the suspect. The image is a vague rendering of a man that does not provide any more information than the sketch that the department already has of the suspect. This further perpetuates the hyper-surveillance of any man who resembles the image. Parabon NanoLabs has already been criticized by criminal justice and privacy experts for disseminating images that implicate too broad a pool of suspects.
The Queensland police department said that the DNA sample from the case generated a genealogy tree of "15,000 'linked' individuals" and they have not been able to find a close match yet. Instead of facing the possibility that DNA phenotyping may not be an effective tool for narrowing down a suspect, the police department's strategy is to ask the public for their DNA samples. Criminologist Xanthe Mallett said in a press release that to help police find a match, people can "opt-in" to share their own DNA samples with investigators through DNA services such as Family Tree and GEDMatch. "Many members of the public that see this generated image will be unaware that it's a digital approximation, that age, weight, hairstyle, and face shape may be very different, and that accuracy of skin/hair/eye color is approximate," said Callie Schroeder, the Global Privacy Counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
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This just seems like a disaster waiting to happen
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This is Australia, not the USA.
Already a Disaster: Hair Length (Score:2)
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It already looks like a disaster given that they say that the blood samples they found could determine it was "a Caucasian man with long blonde hair". Your hair length is defined by choice, not your DNA. Either they found hair samples too or they are doing exactly what they said they were not doing: factoring in environmental characteristics like choice of hair length.
A witness described a potential suspect with long blonde hair. The DNA sample confirmed blond hair.
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A witness described a potential suspect with long blonde hair.
If they already have a description from a witness why are they wasting money on trying to determine the appearance from DNA?
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A witness described a potential suspect with long blonde hair.
If they already have a description from a witness why are they wasting money on trying to determine the appearance from DNA?
If the suspect already had DNA in a police database, testing that DNA sample would have saved a lot of time. Also, sometimes witnesses lie.
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Still and all, I really don't like this "familial matching" DNA typing practice
Did you read the summary? They are not doing "familial matching".
They are doing phenotype matching: Analysing the DNA to figure out what the guy looked like.
Going by the results in TFA, it looks like phenotype matching is a technique beyond our current level of technology.
Re:Best turn yourself in for the reward (Score:4, Interesting)
TFA is unclear. My understanding is: they had DNA from the crime scene which they processed through "familial matching" (they say: "investigative genetic genealogy") and found 15000 family matches. They then intended to narrow using genetic phenotyping. The computer processed the DNA and answered it likely belonged to a male with light skin, blonde hair and blue or green eyes. Since it did not narrow down very much (they probably don't have an nationwide database of hair color, and the perpetrator possibly has white hair or no hair anymore at this point), they asked people please share genetic information so they can better narrow down.
This will go well (Score:2)
Their pre-crime force isn't quite ready yet, though. I can't wait for the sperm pre-sorting to get rid of criminal traits, like not being white.
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Their pre-crime force isn't quite ready yet, though. I can't wait for the sperm pre-sorting to get rid of criminal traits, like not being white.
Except that in this case the lifted DNA points to a Caucasian male with blonde hair. I know you were going for flame war, or triggering, but not all criminals are non-white, nor are all non-whites criminals.
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Nevermind that - how the fuck do you determine hair length from a blood sample??
(I'm actually frightened that I'm the only one not-stupid enough to inquire - I knew things were bad but this takes them to another level.)
A witness described a man with long blond hair. The DNA sample said blue or green eyes, light skin, and blond hair. The DNA basically confirmed the witness' story.
Re: This will go well (Score:2)
Assess the amount of your gain through malfeasance and give it to every non-white person you can reach.
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Being white makes you guilty of "white privilege."
I only have white European DNA (family history does include other races, but I didn't get any of that DNA). Most privileges I've enjoyed come from familial culture and values plus the societies where I was raised - not directly tied to my race. I was born into a family with both parents present physically and emotionally. Both parents came from long lines of educators, so education was emphasized in my upbringing. My parents participated in parent teacher conferences. My dad helped me with science projects.
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I'm sure you spend a lot of time with sticky fingers.
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I'm sorry your sarcasm filters aren't working. I thought there were enough hints, like the whole pre-crime thing.
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Caucasian, man and blonde... okay, I guess. But how can someone's DNA possibly tell you how long their hair is? "This man doesn't have the gene for getting his hair cut".
There was a witness description of a possible long haired suspect at the time and the DNA generated picture fits that to a reasonable degree.
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Caucasian, man and blonde... okay, I guess. But how can someone's DNA possibly tell you how long their hair is? "This man doesn't have the gene for getting his hair cut".
There was a witness description of a possible long haired suspect at the time and the DNA generated picture fits that to a reasonable degree.
So, why didn't they just ask the witness what color the suspect's hair was?
Long? (Score:2)
I guess you can know that the subject will have hair, that it will be blonde too, but long? How can DNA determine the fashion statements the subject will want to make?
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I guess you can know that the subject will have hair, that it will be blonde too, but long?
They know the subject is genetically able to grow long hair (in each individual, hair grow to certain length then falls and is replaced; that women often have longer hair than men is due to their genetics). They assume tall blonde white men on the Australian beachside in 1982 would be likely to let their hair grow to natural length.
(It does not mean the suspect still uses long hair or that his hair is still blonde, but witnesses might remember knowing someone who matched the description at the time.)
Oh Shit! (Score:2)
That's Angus Young from AC/DC, better check their concert schedule that year
Bad laws (Score:5, Insightful)
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I have a son that is in Cub Scouts. They had a cop come talk to the kids about being a cop. This cop was proud to show off his pink and orange handcuffs. Why did he have colored handcuffs? Because his co-workers like to steal each others cuffs. I later had to point out to my son that the colored handcuffs means that cops are stealing from each other and they never get arrest when they steal like that - that maybe you cannot always trust the police to do the right thing.
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Tell your son it's like using the pencils and rubber eraser from your friend when you and your friend share a table for two and without formally asking. This happens to me all the time at the office, I bring blue ballpens to meeting, then someone else takes them in the end, or I forget them, who knows. It's not stealing because the pool of pens is still spread on tables at our office, just I can't figure where is mine. My surviving pens are red and green, because I'm the only one with red ballpens so I can
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I'll quote the cop, "I have pink and orange handcuffs because my coworkers like to steal these things." His words, not mine. Call it what you want, being a cop sounds pretty shitty to me.
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It's a cop using cop words that s/he thinks a kid will understand. This is not theft, here is the definition of "embezzlement of government property" in US: https://www.justice.gov/archiv... [justice.gov] It requires that the object leaves the property of the original owner (the government), which is not the case here.
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> It's a cop using cop words that s/he thinks a kid will understand.
Maybe he is just not that bright.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/t... [cbsnews.com]
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It's gone the opposite way in the UK. In the early days of DNA evidence the police "invited" whole communities to submit samples, and often many people did. It proved to be a pretty poor way of solving crime though, because obviously the criminal isn't going to volunteer and while the police leant on people who declined there were usually so many of them that it didn't really narrow down the field much.
Nowadays they don't do mass testing. They rely on their database of DNA samples and on the legal obligatio
prove your innocence (Score:3)
> people can "opt-in" to share their own DNA samples with investigators
It won't be long until you are arrested because you did not volunteer your DNA for the investigation, you'll be arrested for obstruction of justice and held until you 'prove your innocence' with your DNA.
The bad guy..? (Score:2)
Does the immunity from prosecution include the bad guy, should he choose to visit a police station and confess?
It is not just YOUR DNA sample (Score:4, Interesting)
What you should remember, when considering such a submission, is that it is not just your sample you'll be providing.
Police will also be able to identify your relatives through partial matches:
Whether this is something you want to happen to your child or other relative, should he break a law, is up to you...
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pretty insightful, mod it up someone, please!
Yes, this is worth considering...
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Partial matches are probabilities. There is also a probability that your son was not the perp, but try convincing a jury of idiots otherwise.
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Once identified as suspect, police can find other evidence...
I'd love for this to happen to other people, but I'm not so sure about my own kin...
WOW (Score:2)
" to create a profile image of the murder suspect, a Caucasian man with long blonde hair. "
1 drop of blood and they know his hairdo?
Cool!
Woah, that was close. (Score:2)
So .... (Score:2)
This has cut it down from a very large family tree of typical Australians, to someone who looks like a typical Australian .... not sure how that helps ...
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This has cut it down from a very large family tree of typical Australians, to someone who looks like a typical Australian .... not sure how that helps ...
It helps because you have something scientific to base racial profiling on. If DNA can indicate light skin, blond hair, and blue or green eyes, the police can focus on people matching that description. Likewise if DNA comes back as aboriginal the police could focus on people facing that description without being labeled racist. Of course race, hair color, and eye color are not enough to assume guilt, but it can limit the suspect pool.
As an efficiency measure... (Score:2)
As an efficiency measure, all 15,000 will be executed at midnight.