The Legal Aid Society called on lawmakers in Albany to pass a bill that would shut down the City’s rogue DNA database which currently includes more than 1,600 minors and 8,000 people who have not been convicted of a crime, as reported by The Imprint.

The DNA samples are taken from people questioned or under arrest – often surreptitiously – and civil rights advocates liken it a “genetic stop and frisk” that disproportionately targets Black and Latino New Yorkers.

“The continued increase in the size of the OCME DNA index shows that the NYPD is both slow-walking any removal of profiles while also rapidly ramping up collection,” said Terri Rosenblatt, Supervising Attorney of Legal Aid’s DNA Unit. “At this rate, there will be no meaningful reduction in the size of the City’s index.”

A bill is currently pending before the New York State Senate which would clarify state law to prohibit New York city from operating its local DNA database.