Collecting finger prints and DNA

[MattBaggins]

Is it legal for civilians to collect fingerprints or DNA? Asking for a friend.

If hypothetically, there was a fascist group, (let's call them Frozen Water) terrorizing people and they touched something of yours, would it be legal to take fingerprints or DNA samples?

[ForgedCrank]

1. My best

guess would be that it would be worthless even if you did.
Such evidence has to be collected and maintained with a documented chain of custody etc. and without that it could never be used in a court. You also aren't a trusted source to do the collection..
If an actual crime were committed, you would also unwittingly be destroying evidence.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Sure, you could. The question is more along the lines of, what good is it if you don't have a specialty in forensics.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

3. Generally legal

Some states restrict collecting biometric data like fingerprints. Some restrict it if the purpose is to stalk or harass someone. But generally though, there isnt much that says you can't. There just isnt much reason to do so. Its pretty useless for evidence as there is no chain of custody and no guarantee all procedure for proper evidence collection was followed.