Forensic investigative genetic: A Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Review

Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy (FIGG) is transforming police investigations. By leveraging genetic information from genealogy databases, FIGG expands on traditional forensic DNA analysis to help identify suspects and unknown individuals. 

Since its emergence, FIGG has demonstrated remarkable effectiveness in solving crimes. FIGG has helped solve over 1,000 cases, many of them cold cases, and has proven invaluable in identifying unidentified human remains, especially when traditional methods like fingerprints or dental comparisons have failed. 

At the same time, FIGG is not without its risks. FIGG investigations can reveal potentially sensitive information about individuals’ family lives, such as misattributed parentage, raising serious privacy concerns. Errors in DNA analysis or genealogical research could lead to wrongful investigations, arrests, or convictions. And there has been considerable controversy about whether users of genealogy databases have truly consented to their data being used for law enforcement purposes. These risks are only compounded when law enforcement fails to disclose their use of FIGG, depriving defense counsel of the ability to fully understand how the technique may have shaped an investigation.

Yet its use remains largely unregulated, with only a handful of jurisdictions adopting comprehensive rules. This regulatory gap not only poses risks to civil rights and civil liberties,  but also threatens to undermine public trust in law enforcement. Without clear guardrails FIGG’s promise may be overshadowed by concerns about misuse and overreach.

This report highlights the urgent need for sound regulation, so that society can harness FIGG’s benefits while managing its risks. In researching this report, the Policing Project sought the insights of a variety of stakeholders, including prosecutors, public defenders, police, policymakers, genealogists, and personnel at both private and public forensic labs. Some guardrails—such as limiting use to serious crimes, requiring transparency and disclosure, ensuring confirmatory testing, and restricting searches to opt-in databases—received near unanimous approval.

FIGG holds tremendous potential, but this potential can only be realized if its risks are managed responsibly.This report offers practical, common-sense guidance to help policymakers balance FIGG’s promise for solving crime and its risks to individual rights.