Puerto Rico

Recent/Pending Legislation

• Ley Núm. 104 de 2025 (SAK tracking portal);
• Ley Núm. 108 de 2024 (added DNA collection tied to mandatory supervised release for sexual crimes against minors, amending Ley 175-1998 and the Penal Code);
• Ley Núm. 135 de 2020 (modern ICF organic law).

Arrestees: Yes.

Qualifying Crimes: Since July 1, 2011 — the date fixed by Ley Núm. 253 de 30 de diciembre de 2010, which added subsection (E) to Article 8 of Ley 175-1998, 34 L.P.R.A. § 4006(E) — “toda persona contra quien se encuentre causa para arresto” (“every person against whom cause for arrest is found”) “por la comisión o tentativa” (“for the commission or attempt”) of any of twenty-four enumerated offenses “se someterá a la toma de muestra de ADN para determinar sus características de identidad” (“shall submit to the taking of a DNA sample to determine his or her identifying characteristics”).

Time of Collection: “Causa para arresto” is the magistrate’s finding under Regla 6, not an officer’s, though Article 9(C) places collection at the police station “simultáneamente a la toma de huellas digitales y el proceso de fichaje.” Only the ICF may analyze or retain the sample, and it must be destroyed if the charges are dismissed or the defendant acquitted, absent other undecided charges.

Expungement: Arrestee samples and records must be destroyed on dismissal or acquittal, unless other charges against the same person remain undecided (§ 4006(E)).

Convicted Offenders: Yes — enumerated offenses, not all felonies.

Qualifying Crimes: Collection is triggered by conviction of one of 32 specifically enumerated offenses across three tranches at 34 L.P.R.A. § 4006(B)–(D) (murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery, child abuse, trafficking, etc.), including attempts and conspiracies since Ley 243-2011, plus a supervised-release category added by Ley 108-2024. Felonies outside the enumeration do not qualify.

Time of Collection: A sample is a condition of sentence for those not imprisoned and a condition of parole or supervised-release participation for those already convicted.

Expungement: By petition where the conviction is both reversed and the case dismissed (34 L.P.R.A. § 4011) — 20 days’ notice to the prosecutor, and on the court’s order the ICF deletes the record and returns the sample to the person.

Statutes/Case Law

• 34 L.P.R.A. §§ 4001–4012 (Ley 175-1998, “Ley del Banco de Datos de ADN de Puerto Rico,” as amended).

Legislative History

• P. de la C. 1637 (1998) (Conferencia) → Ley Núm. 175 de 24 de julio de 1998, “Ley del Banco de Datos de ADN de Puerto Rico,” approved July 24, 1998, effective immediately on approval, with collection beginning January 1, 1999 for the Article 8(B) offenses and July 1, 1999 for the Article 8(C) offenses. Created 34 L.P.R.A. §§ 4001–4012, establishing the Banco de Datos de ADN within the Instituto de Ciencias Forenses, requiring submission of criminal-identification records to the FBI for CODIS and compatibility with FBI procedures, equipment, supplies and software, and requiring a sample from every person convicted of an enumerated offense or attempt — murder, homicide in all forms, rape, sodomy, lewd acts, incest, bestiality and any Ley 54-1989 domestic violence felony, joined July 1, 1999 by kidnapping, robbery, felony aggravated assault, perversion of minors, manufacture and distribution of controlled substances, distribution to minors, continuing criminal enterprise, child abuse and mutilation. Collection occurs at the place of incarceration after conviction, or as a condition of sentence for those not imprisoned and as a condition of parole or supervised-release programs for those already convicted; the act made all records and samples confidential, provided expungement and return of the sample where the underlying conviction is reversed and the case dismissed, and made knowing disclosure or misuse a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months, a $5,000 fine, or both, plus mandatory restitution and cancellation of any state license or permit.
• P. de la C. 4592 (2004) → Ley Núm. 527 de 29 de septiembre de 2004, approved September 29, 2004, effective on the entry into force of the 2004 Penal Code (Ley Núm. 149 de 18 de junio de 2004). A conforming act that added a new Article 8(D) to Ley 175-1998 and renumbered the prior subsection, subjecting to sampling every person convicted of the following as defined in the new Code: murder in all forms, negligent homicide, sexual assault, lewd acts, bestiality, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault and negligent injury, corruption of minors, child pornography, illegal appropriation of identity, aggravated restriction of liberty where the victim is under eighteen (unless by a parent or custodian), procuring and trafficking in persons, spousal sexual assault under Art. 3.5 of Ley 54-1989, and aggravated abuse committed simultaneously with child abuse. Also amended Article 14 to strike the fixed six-month/$5,000 penalty, leaving misuse a delito menos grave under the Penal Code’s general scheme with mandatory restitution and license cancellation retained.
• P. de la C. 2283 (2010) (Conferencia) → Ley Núm. 253 de 30 de diciembre de 2010, approved December 30, 2010, effective immediately on approval, with arrestee collection beginning July 1, 2011 or earlier if the ICF identified funds of any kind, on thirty days’ notice to the Legislative Assembly. Puerto Rico’s arrestee-DNA act: added Article 8(E) requiring a sample on a finding of probable cause for arrest for twenty-four enumerated offenses or attempts — murder and attenuated murder, the three abortion offenses, human cloning, aggravated assault, kidnapping of minors, corruption of minors, sexual assault, lewd acts, bestiality, procuring and trafficking in persons (simple and aggravated), the three child pornography offenses, slavery, aggravated restriction of liberty, kidnapping and aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, genocide and crimes against humanity — limited analysis and custody to the ICF, required the Clerk of the Court of First Instance to report the final disposition, and required destruction of the sample and all related records on dismissal or acquittal absent other undecided charges. Amended Article 9 to add subsection (C) placing arrestee collection at the police station simultaneously with fingerprinting and booking, and shifted the compulsion request in Article 9(B) from the Director to the prosecutor; note that Sections 4 and 5 of the enrolled act misdescribe the new subsection as “inciso (E) del Artículo 9.”
• Sustitutivo del Senado a los P. del S. 769 y 771 y P. de la C. 89, 740, 1298 y 1953 (2011) → Ley Núm. 243 de 14 de diciembre de 2011, approved December 14, 2011, effective immediately on approval (Article 4(f)–(g) prospective, remaining provisions potentially retroactive). Principally a rewrite of Ley 266-2004, the “Ley del Registro de Personas Convictas por Delitos Sexuales y Abuso Contra Menores,” conforming Puerto Rico’s sex offender registry to the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (Pub. L. No. 109-248) with new offender tiers and registration duties. Its DNA provision is Article 12, which amended Article 8 of Ley 175-1998 so that subsection (D) reaches attempts and conspiracies as well as completed 2004 Penal Code offenses.
• P. de la C. 2570 (2015) → Ley Núm. 246 de 29 de diciembre de 2015, “Ley de Análisis de ADN Post Sentencia,” approved December 29, 2015, effective immediately on approval — introduced first as P. de la C. 1794 and vetoed by Governor Alejandro García Padilla, then reintroduced and passed by the House November 4 and the Senate November 11, 2015. Created 34 L.P.R.A. §§ 4021–4042, allowing a person convicted of murder in all forms, homicide, negligent homicide, sexual assault, incest, lewd acts, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, aggravated damage, aggravated restriction of liberty, kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping — or an attempt, including convictions by plea agreement, confession or admission — to move in the sentencing court, within the same case number, for an order directing DNA analysis of evidence held by the ICF, the Department of Justice or the Police, or found after trial, on a sworn showing that identity was or should have been a significant issue and that testing carries a reasonable probability of a different verdict. Requires either indigency for ICF testing at state expense or ability to pay an accredited private laboratory using the same technology and amplification chemistry as the ICF DNA-Serology laboratory, makes the petitioner’s profile and sample records strictly confidential, requires immediate judicial consignment of the described evidence to the ICF, and makes destruction of that evidence by a public official punishable by a fixed three-year term under Art. 285 of the 2012 Penal Code; original Articles 4 and 7 superseded by Ley 73-2018.
• P. de la C. 1379 (2018) → Ley Núm. 73 de 7 de febrero de 2018, approved February 7, 2018, effective immediately on approval and applied retroactively to December 29, 2015. Rewrote Article 4 of Ley 246-2015 so that a court must consider a post-conviction DNA motion from any person sentenced on or after July 24, 1985 — the date the ICF was created — and so that the twelve-month jurisdictional term runs from the date the petitioner or counsel learns testable evidence is available, replacing the original scheme tied to the Rule 189 new-trial term and a twelve-month window from the act’s effective date. Added a court-ordered transfer of evidence held by another public entity to the forensic sciences bureau within five days of an order granting the motion, and extended the prosecutor’s term to oppose from thirty to sixty days, extendable for just cause to no more than ninety.
• P. de la C. 2075 (2020) → Ley Núm. 135 de 1 de septiembre de 2020, “Ley del Instituto de Ciencias Forenses de Puerto Rico,” approved September 1, 2020, effective ninety days after approval. Structural rather than substantive as to the databank: suppressed Chapter 4 of Ley 20-2017, removing forensic science from the Department of Public Safety, and re-established the ICF as an autonomous entity at 34 L.P.R.A. §§ 3041 et seq., with Article 50 deeming every existing statutory reference to the Negociado de Ciencias Forenses amended to refer to the ICF. Article 3 mandates ANAB accreditation of the Criminalistics Laboratory and the Forensic Investigators and Security Division and NAME accreditation of Pathology, expressly requires the ICF as an autonomous entity to belong to the FBI’s CODIS, and directs an annual accreditation-status report to the Legislative Assembly, while Article 6 organizes the ICF into technical sections including DNA and serology and evidence control and custody; later amended by Ley 50-2022, Ley 43-2025 (repealing the Board of Directors) and Ley 142-2025.
• P. de la C. 1932 (2024) → Ley Núm. 108 de 23 de julio de 2024, approved July 23, 2024, effective immediately on approval; Department of State certified copy dated July 29, 2024. Created the penalty of “libertad supervisada mandatoria” in the 2012 Penal Code (Ley 146-2012) for offenses against sexual integrity committed against a person under eighteen, adding Article 14(gg.1) and amending Articles 124, 130, 131, 133, 146, 147, 148 and 160 to extend government supervision past the prison term and change how those penalties are computed. Section 13 amended Article 8 of Ley 175-1998 to subject to sampling every person convicted of sexual assault, incest, lewd acts, human trafficking for sexual exploitation, child pornography or the online seduction, persuasion, enticement or coercion of minors — or an attempt — where the victim was under eighteen, for as long as that mandatory supervised release remains in effect, and lists providing the Ley 175-1998 sample among its conditions.
• P. de la C. 21 (2025) → Ley Núm. 104 de 9 de agosto de 2025, “Ley del Portal Electrónico de Rastreo del Equipo de Recolección de Evidencia Forense de Violencia Sexual,” approved August 9, 2025, effective immediately on approval; Department of State certified copy dated August 11, 2025. Puerto Rico’s sexual assault kit tracking act, creating a portal administered by the Centro de Ayuda a Víctimas de Violación (CAVV) within the Department of Health that must show kit location, movement dates from Health to the ICF, analysis status, final disposition, whether the assailant’s genetic profile was entered into the DNA databank, whether it matched state, national or CODIS profiles, and the estimated destruction date — expressly not a chain of custody for judicial or administrative purposes. Requires an interagency working group (ICF, Negociado de la Policía, CAVV, Justice, PRITS and at least two community-based organizations) to oversee data entry, issue a use manual and multidisciplinary regulations, report kit status to the Governor and legislative leadership before the next session, and evaluate compliance annually, and requires every agency or health facility holding kits to participate within six months, with the ICF entering receipt, completion, databank-entry and delivery dates; traces to Senate Resolution 417 (approved May 23, 2018), which investigated the ICF kit backlog.

• No Rapid-DNA-specific statute, but Puerto Rico is an operational adopter. Effective December 1, 2021, the ICF deployed Rapid DNA to process sexual-assault kits (within about 10 business days) and to identify unidentified remains, under its general ICF/databank authority (ICF lab page).

No program or law identified.

• While not necessarily LODNA per se, rape-kit tracking is now statutory: Ley Núm. 104 de 2025 creates a statewide electronic portal (administered by the Health Department’s CAVV) that lets survivors track a kit from collection through ICF analysis, CODIS matching, and destruction. No dedicated “lawfully owed DNA” audit statute; backlog work also draws on federal SAKI eligibility.

No program or law identified