posted June 09, 2013 09:34 PM Hide Post
This is snwghst's father.
I talked to a St Clair County Sheriff's office Lieutenant tonight. The DUI/PIRE Friday and Saturday, and perhaps tonight, stops were for PIRE, under contract to NHTSA, to repeat data collection for a study of alcohol and drug concentrations in drivers since the Sheriffs had already stopped the drivers. Participation in the PIRE study was optional, at the driver's discretion. No personal data were collected by PIRE. DNA testing was not the reason for the cheek swab. Saliva analysis for drugs and alcohol is compared to blood sample analysis to see if a valid saliva test for BAC can be developed, thus making the blood test unnecessary. The report on the 2007 study is here:
The abstract is:
16. Abstract
This study developed and tested procedures to enhance roadside survey procedures to include collecting and analyzing oral fluid and blood samples from the nighttime weekend driving population. Roadside surveys involve collecting information from a random sample of drivers. In the past, they have been used to measure the extent of alcohol use in the nighttime driving population in order to establish regular measures of that activity, which is a measure of progress in reducing impaired driving. This study developed and tested techniques to extend the scope of that measurement to drugs other than alcohol. Breath and oral fluid samples were successfully collected from over 600 drivers at 6 locations across the United States. Blood samples were obtained from approximately half of those subjects. Laboratory analyses for alcohol and other drugs were conducted on the oral fluid and blood samples. Procedures and results are described in this report. The findings indicate that this form of expanded roadside survey is practicable in the United States. The intent of this Pilot Test was to develop and test procedures that would be used in the next full-scale national roadside survey. It was not designed to yield a nationally-representative sample of the nighttime weekend driving population; thus the results are not representative of the United States as a whole.
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However, DHS does have a rapid DNA analysis device they intend to use to prove or disprove familial relationships among asylum seekers. The privacy impact assessment can be found at:
One paragraph, middle of page 4, states: "In preparation for the Rapid DNA System, S&T conducted a broad review of DNA needs across DHS operational components and found several consistent needs for verification of family relationships, countering human trafficking, family reunification, identification of victims following mass casualties, and checks against DNA samples of known criminals. Each of these applications require significant policy development or revisions and privacy and civil rights assessments to allow the use of DNA in operational settings."
Information on the DHS DNA device was published in 2011 in many locations. An approved Privacy Impact Assessment means the device is ready for test/operational use as described.
Hope this puts out at least one fire and doesn't start another.
Your post is very interesting. Not sure if I understand the whole thing tho. Don’t know if you posted it to quell any unease about the stops or just for more info.
If anything it makes me even more uneasy that this could be happening. It really doesn’t make any sense. Maybe I’m reading it wrong. The tests were done on people who were already stopped? Apparently for drugs or alcohol? But they were voluntary? Right...And of course, no personal info was attached to the DNA? Uh, huh.....
It just keeps getting stranger and stranger.
Were the swabs destroyed after the test?
Dang, Kristinn,
I had just found that and was going to post it..I guess this PRISM thing is really slowing down my internet..
As someone on the sig forum said, (paraphrasing).."it's not what they say the will do with it, it's what they can do with it.."
Do I trust our government to not use that dna to implicate someone in something totally unrelated to the stated purpose of the dna collection?
Maybe something along the lines of:
DNA evidence found at arson fire of black church traced to Pell City Tea Party Member, etc..
I'm in the middle of re-reading Matt Bracken's trilogy. It seems things have leaned forward since he published the first one in 2003.
“No personal data were collected by PIRE. DNA testing was not the reason for the cheek swab. Saliva analysis for drugs and alcohol is compared to blood sample analysis to see if a valid saliva test for BAC can be developed, thus making the blood test unnecessary.”
I was re-reading your post and the short explanation of the program. What a crock of s—t. Not you, the program itself.
Why in the world would you have to have a roadblock to take samples of drivers, if all you wanted to do was develop a “valid saliva test” for BAC and drugs?
Here’s what I would do. I’m giving the government free advice on how to save money and make their bullshit tests more accurate. If anyone from Government law enforcement is reading this, you can take it or leave it.
You actually have real volunteers, in a lab setting, get drunk. Then you compare breath test to saliva and blood tests. I know that is too simple. Couldn’t work. No way.
I’ll tell you what tho. You hire a lab or do the test yourself. Advertise “Get drunk for Free!” Or “Free Lortabs” and you’d have more volunteers than you know what to do with.
So, since the explanation of the program makes no sense, then what are they actually doing?
Thanks for relevant info. My miscellaneous observations :
There were at least 600 people in 6 locations back in 2007 who were dumb enough to give breath and saliva samples to perfect strangers on the side of the road. About 300 of those dummies actually let that perfect stranger stick a needle in his arm.
This 2nd pilot study for PIRE could easily be serving as a dual pilot study for the Natl Highway Traffic Safety Admin to investigate how feasible it would be to use this methodology for future DNA collection on the general public. It’s “voluntary” today, but what about in the future? (”Want to pass this checkpoint to buy groceries? Get to work? Stick out yer arm & open yer mouth, dude.”) If so, add the NHTSA to the list of alphabet .gov agencies that will be used to enforce the new rules.
It’s hard for me to fathom, but it appears that the 60’s Revolutionary Marxists have been sitting around all this time, dreaming and scheming how they would implement their Utopia if ever given a chance. I was around them in campgrounds in the 60s and 70s while on family vacations. They were the ones skinny-dipping in the streams; hanging out in the gift shops making lewd remarks when i walked past; camping in the flower-power school bus 2 spots down & keeping everyone awake at night with their obnoxious behavior; and the reason i couldn’t see Chicago the summer of ‘68 because it was too dangerous to drive through. I didn’t like them then, and i don’t like them now. I didn’t know the word “narcissistic” back then, but i distinctly remember thinking it every time i saw them. Some things never change, i suppose.