The entire 14,000-strong police force of an Argentinian city has been ordered to undergo compulsory DNA testing in a case of suspected serial rape.
The move in Cordoba, Argentina's second city, follows a claim by one of the rapist's 32 victims that she was attacked by a police officer.
"If a man who we pay to protect the lives of citizens is out there raping young women on the street he should get a life sentence," said Jose de la Sota, governor of Cordoba.
"The best thing we can do, to clear any doubts, is to submit the entire police force to DNA testing."
Collection of blood samples has already begun in a huge operation being conducted by private and state medical institutions.
It is estimated that it will take about six months to gather all the samples and perform the DNA tests.
Officers who refuse to be tested may be expelled from the force and turned over to the court investigating the rape cases, the authorities said.
Some 2,000 women members of the Cordoba police force will be tested as well. The cost is estimated at about US$750,000.
"The idea is to create a digitalized DNA bank of all police members and prison wardens so that, should new cases appear tomorrow in which our officers are suspected, we can quickly compare the evidence with the genetic patterns we have gathered," said Carlos Alesandri, the security minister.
"I'm convinced that the supreme aim is to defend the force," said Jorge Rodriguez, the Cordoba police chief, as he became the first officer to submit a blood sample.
But legal experts and civil liberties activists have protested that the DNA order is unconstitutional and that only the court investigating the rapes is empowered to demand DNA testing.
A geneticist, Marcelo Simonetta, said the tests would be legally invalid unless a special law was drafted. Ricardo Moreno, a lawyer, agreed. "This is unconstitutional - there could be a flood of lawsuits against the government."
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