He said the proposal is not without issues — there are substantial costs and other considerations involved. “We’re going to get some impact statements on it,” he said.

Toscano said it might be appropriate to include only a portion of misdemeanor crimes at first, as did the state of New York, which now takes samples from people convicted of almost all misdemeanors.

“This is arising directly out of the Hannah Graham case,” Toscano said. “It’s gotten a lot of us thinking about what would have happened if we had collected some DNA from this person prior to some of the alleged crimes being committed.”

Matthew is innocent until proven guilty, he said.

“But there’s enough out there that makes you wonder if we had a DNA swab taken when he had been convicted of a misdemeanor several years ago, whether we might have solved the Fairfax case earlier. And if that had happened ... whether Hannah would have ever been abducted,” Toscano said.

Virginia has the oldest state DNA databank in the country and has collected profiles from felons and from those convicted of a handful of sex-related misdemeanors since 1989. In 2003, people arrested for violent felonies also were required to surrender DNA samples, which are removed from the databank if they are not convicted.