RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina’s top prosecutor says the state’s DNA law is getting results and saving lives.
WRAL-TV reports that Roy Cooper told a meeting in Chicago on Wednesday that collecting DNA samples from people who get arrested helps authorities identify suspects more quickly and keeps the community safer.
Cooper was speaking at a gathering hosted by DNA Saves. The advocacy group pushes states to pass laws like the one in North Carolina, where people arrested for crimes like murder and rape are required to submit to DNA collection by cheek swab.
Twenty-five other states have passed such laws.
Cooper says states much also invest in resources and staff to keep the testing going.