CODIS DNA Collection, Removal & Expungement
The government may be storing your DNA profile in a federal criminal database — even if you were never convicted of a crime. You have the right to have it removed. We've done it dozens of times.
Is Your DNA in a Federal Criminal Database?
If military law enforcement ever took a buccal swab — a large cotton swab from inside your mouth — during an investigation, your DNA profile is very likely stored in CODIS, the FBI's Combined DNA Index System. CODIS currently contains over 21 million DNA profiles and is searchable by law enforcement agencies at the local, state, and federal level — at any time, without a warrant, and without your knowledge.
The troubling reality is that you do not have to have been convicted of any crime for your DNA to be in that database. Military regulations authorize law enforcement agencies like NCIS, OSI, CID, and CGIS to collect DNA samples from individuals who are merely suspected of a qualifying offense — before any charges are filed and regardless of whether charges are ever brought. If your case was dropped, dismissed, resolved with NJP, or resulted in acquittal, your DNA profile may still be sitting in CODIS right now.
At Korody Law, we have successfully removed dozens of DNA profiles from CODIS for current and former service members, veterans, federal employees, and civilians. Attorney Patrick Korody — a former Navy JAG officer who worked at NCIS headquarters as a law student — is one of the most experienced CODIS removal lawyers in the country.
You do not have to accept permanent government surveillance of your genetic identity. If your DNA was collected by military law enforcement and you were never convicted of a qualifying offense, you likely have the right to have it removed. Call Korody Law at (904) 383-7261 for a free consultation.
What Is CODIS and Why Does It Matter?
The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is the FBI's national DNA database, authorized under the DNA Identification Act and governed by 34 U.S.C. § 12592. It operates as a tiered system: individual laboratory databases feed into state-level indices, which in turn feed into the National DNA Index System (NDIS) — the top tier, maintained by the FBI and accessible to all participating law enforcement agencies nationwide.
CODIS was originally created in the 1990s as a tool to track convicted felons — specifically those convicted of qualifying sex offenses. The idea was straightforward: if someone commits a crime and leaves DNA evidence at a scene, CODIS could match that evidence to a convicted offender who might otherwise evade detection.
But the law has changed dramatically since then. Through successive amendments to the DNA Identification Act and the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005, Congress expanded DNA collection authority far beyond convicted offenders. Under current law, federal agencies — including all Department of Defense criminal investigative organizations — are authorized to collect DNA from individuals who are merely arrested, facing charges, or even just detained under federal authority. No conviction required.
This means that a service member investigated by NCIS, OSI, CID, or CGIS — even one whose case was ultimately dropped, dismissed, resolved at NJP, or who was acquitted at court-martial — may have had their DNA collected and submitted to USACIL for entry into CODIS. Once in the database, that profile can be searched against DNA evidence from unsolved crimes across the country, without a warrant and without the individual ever knowing.
Non-judicial punishment (NJP / Article 15 / Captain's Mast), administrative separation, and referral to a summary court-martial do not constitute convictions for CODIS purposes. If your case was resolved through NJP or administrative action rather than a general or special court-martial conviction, you may be eligible to have your DNA profile expunged — even if you received punishment.
How Military Law Enforcement Collects DNA
Military DNA collection is governed by DoD Instruction 5505.14, which requires all Defense Criminal Investigative Organizations (DCIOs) — NCIS, OSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations), CID (Army Criminal Investigation Division), and CGIS (Coast Guard Investigative Service) — to collect DNA samples from subjects of qualifying criminal investigations and submit them to the United States Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory (USACIL) for analysis and entry into CODIS.
If you were ever fingerprinted and had buccal swabs taken by military law enforcement, it is highly likely your DNA was submitted to USACIL and entered into CODIS. The collection typically happens at the very beginning of a military investigation — before charges are filed, before a commanding officer decides whether to take action, and long before any court-martial proceeding.
NCIS (Navy & Marine Corps), OSI (Air Force & Space Force), CID (Army), CGIS (Coast Guard), and other DoD law enforcement agencies authorized under DoDI 5505.14.
Buccal swabs (large cotton swabs collected from inside the mouth) are the most common collection method. Fingerprints are typically taken at the same time.
Samples are submitted to the United States Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory (USACIL) in Forest Park, Georgia, which serves as the DoD's CODIS participating laboratory and uploads profiles to the FBI's National DNA Index System (NDIS).
DNA is typically collected at the outset of an investigation — before any charges are filed and before any judicial or administrative proceeding has concluded. The mere status of being a subject of a qualifying investigation is sufficient.
Who Is Eligible for CODIS DNA Expungement?
Eligibility for CODIS expungement depends on the outcome of your case and how the underlying charges were resolved. The governing framework comes from the DNA Identification Act (34 U.S.C. § 12592), DoD Instruction 5505.14, and 10 U.S.C. § 1565 (for military members specifically).
The key threshold question is whether you were convicted of a qualifying offense at a general or special court-martial. If the answer is no — regardless of what other action was taken against you — you are likely eligible for expungement. Here is how common military case outcomes map to expungement eligibility:
| Case Outcome | Counts as Conviction? | Eligible for CODIS Expungement? |
|---|---|---|
| Charges dropped / case closed | No | Yes |
| No charges filed | No | Yes |
| Acquittal at court-martial | No | Yes |
| Non-judicial punishment (NJP / Art. 15 / Captain's Mast) | No | Yes |
| Summary court-martial referral only (no GCM/SPCM conviction) | No | Yes |
| Administrative separation (ADSEP) | No | Yes |
| Conviction at General or Special Court-Martial | Yes | No (unless conviction overturned) |
| Court-martial conviction subsequently overturned on appeal | Overturned | Yes |
| Civilian with prior unrelated felony conviction | See note | Likely denied |
Note: For civilians, the existence of a separate conviction — even one unrelated to the offense for which DNA was taken — can result in denial of the expungement request under DoD policy. This is one of the most important reasons to have an attorney evaluate your specific situation before filing.
How CODIS DNA Expungement Works: The Process
CODIS expungement is not automatic. Even if you are clearly eligible, you must proactively file the appropriate paperwork with the correct authorities — and getting it right matters. An incomplete or improperly documented request will be rejected, requiring you to start over and potentially delaying expungement by months.
Here is how the process generally works for current and former service members:
If buccal swabs and fingerprints were taken by military law enforcement, it is highly likely your DNA is in CODIS. We can help verify this through inquiry to the relevant DCIO and USACIL.
We obtain certified proof of the disposition of your case — demonstrating that you were not convicted of a qualifying offense at general or special court-martial. This typically includes certified court records, acquittal orders, or documentation of case closure without conviction. Getting the right documentation in the right form is where many self-represented requests fail.
For current service members, the expungement request is submitted in writing through the chain of command, routed through the first commanding officer in the grade of Major or Lieutenant Commander or higher. For former service members, the request is submitted to USACIL's CODIS Branch directly, at 4930 N. 31st Street, Forest Park, GA 30297. The request must include specific identifying information and certified supporting documentation.
Upon receipt of a valid expungement request, the Clerk of Court of the relevant Military Department's Court of Criminal Appeals searches its records for any qualifying conviction. If no disqualifying conviction is found, the Clerk forwards the expungement request to USACIL.
Upon receipt of a complete and valid request, USACIL removes the DNA profile from the CODIS database. We obtain confirmation of removal and provide it to our client.
In our experience, we are generally able to get our clients' DNA removed from CODIS within 6 months of retaining us — though the timeline depends on the branch, the volume of requests at USACIL, and the complexity of the case documentation.
Why Removing Your DNA from CODIS Matters
Some clients come to us having heard about CODIS for the first time and wonder whether removal is worth pursuing. Here is why it is.
Once your DNA profile is in CODIS, it can be searched — without a warrant and without your knowledge — against DNA evidence collected from any unsolved crime in the country. The database is queried constantly by law enforcement agencies at every level. A "hit" — a match between your profile and crime scene DNA — can surface at any time, years or even decades after your profile was entered. That hit can lead to an investigation, interrogation, and potentially criminal charges, even if the match is the result of a laboratory error, a partial profile, or a coincidental match.
Beyond the immediate criminal justice risk, the presence of your DNA in a federal database raises serious long-term concerns:
- Security clearance implications: CODIS profiles are accessible to federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. A database hit or a query flag could surface during a security clearance background investigation.
- Future investigations: Your DNA profile can be used to establish "investigative leads" in future cases — meaning you can become a suspect in a crime you had nothing to do with, based solely on a DNA database match.
- Privacy and dignity: Your genetic information is among the most personal data that exists. It can reveal health conditions, ancestry, family relationships, and other information you have every right to keep private. The government should not maintain it without justification.
- Law enforcement errors: DNA database matches are not infallible. Partial profiles, mixed samples, and laboratory contamination have all contributed to wrongful identifications. Removing your profile eliminates the risk of being wrongly implicated.
- Criminal history records: We also assist clients in obtaining expungements of criminal history records (CHRI) maintained in federal databases, including the Defense Central Index of Investigations (DCII) and Interstate Identification Index (III), which are often implicated in the same underlying military investigation.
Who We Represent
Korody Law represents a broad range of individuals whose DNA was collected by military or federal law enforcement and who are eligible for CODIS expungement:
Active-duty personnel from any branch whose case was closed, dropped, resolved at NJP, or resulted in acquittal — without a general or special court-martial conviction.
Individuals who have separated or retired from military service and whose DNA remains in CODIS from an investigation that did not result in a qualifying conviction.
Civilian government employees and DoD contractors who were investigated by military or federal law enforcement and had DNA collected during that process.
Civilians who came under the jurisdiction of NCIS, OSI, CID, or CGIS and had DNA taken — including those investigated for offenses on or near military installations.
Criminal History Record Expungement: Beyond DNA
When military law enforcement titles a subject in a criminal investigation — meaning the subject is named in the investigation as having committed a specific offense — that titling creates a criminal history record that is maintained in multiple federal databases, including the Defense Central Index of Investigations (DCII) maintained by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), and potentially the FBI's Interstate Identification Index (III).
These records can surface during federal employment background checks, security clearance investigations, and other federal vetting processes — even if no charges were filed and no conviction resulted. A military investigation titling that was never adjudicated can quietly derail a security clearance renewal or a federal job application years later.
Korody Law handles expungement of military criminal history records in conjunction with CODIS DNA removal, providing a comprehensive approach to clearing our clients' federal records after a military investigation that did not result in a conviction. If your DNA is in CODIS, your criminal history records are likely indexed as well — and both should be addressed.
"Patrick Korody has more than 20 years of military service as a JAG officer and is an expert in military law. As a law student he worked at NCIS headquarters. Since he started Korody Law, he has successfully removed dozens of DNA profiles from CODIS and obtained criminal history records expungements for current and former service members."
Frequently Asked Questions: CODIS DNA Removal
Governing Law & Regulations
CODIS DNA collection and expungement is governed by a framework of federal statute and DoD regulation:
| Authority | What It Governs |
|---|---|
| 34 U.S.C. § 12592 | The DNA Identification Act — establishes CODIS, defines the index categories, and sets the legal requirements for expungement from NDIS |
| 34 U.S.C. § 40702 | Authorizes federal agencies to collect DNA from individuals who are arrested, facing charges, or convicted — the expansion that enabled arrestee collection |
| 10 U.S.C. § 1565 | The military-specific DNA collection authority, governing collection from members of the armed forces |
| DoD Instruction 5505.14 | The primary DoD regulation governing DNA collection and submission requirements for all military law enforcement agencies, and the procedures for requesting expungement |
| Service-Specific Policies | Each branch (NCIS, OSI, CID, CGIS) maintains its own implementing instructions for DNA collection and handling consistent with DoDI 5505.14 |
Get Your DNA Out of CODIS. Call Korody Law.
You should not have to live with your genetic profile in a federal criminal database because of an investigation that never resulted in a conviction. We have removed dozens of DNA profiles from CODIS — and we can remove yours.
Schedule a Free Consultation (904) 383-7261Disclaimer: This page provides general information about CODIS DNA collection and expungement and is not legal advice for any individual case or situation. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Past results do not guarantee any particular outcome in a future case.