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The Indiana House Courts and Criminal Code Committee advanced two bills Wednesday aimed at expediting the processing of warrants and assuring DNA samples are taken at the time of a felony arrest.
Senate Bill 159 would let prosecutors record requests for a warrant made by telephone, radio or other similar electronic means, if a judge approves.
Currently, a judge is required to record the request.
The measure also would allow for certain warrant requests to be made electronically rather only by radio or telephone.
The bill would require the prosecuting attorney and a law enforcement agency to maintain all requests for warrants and to provide them to a defendant in discovery.
“This provides a little bit more discretion for who records that,” the bill’s sponsor Rep. Garrett Bascom, R-Lawrenceburg, said.
The committee amended the bill to add additional flexibility on who can record the request for a warrant.
Senate Bill 120 would require a sheriff to take a DNA sample of a person taken into custody for a felony. If the person refuses to provide a sample to a sheriff, the violation would be a Class C misdemeanor.
The bill was amended to clarify that it would be against the law to refuse a DNA sample, but not against the law to refuse to answer questions or provide other information.
“It came to my attention in discussion with the state police, this is one of their agency bills that there are cases where folks are refusing to submit that DNA sample,” the bill’s author Sen. Michael Crider, R-Greenfield, said in committee. “Then that leaves the sheriff with a quandary as to how to comply with statute and makes it jump through hoops to try to go get warrants and other things to try to get a person to comply,”
Both bills passed unanimously and are now headed to the full House for consideration.
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