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WASHINGTON — The government plans to begin collecting DNA samples from anyone arrested by a federal law enforcement agency — a move intended to prevent violent crime but which also is raising concerns about the privacy of innocent people.

Using authority granted by Congress, the government also plans to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained, whether they have been charged or not. The DNA would be collected through a cheek swab, Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Wednesday. That would be a departure from current practice, which limits DNA collection to convicted felons.

Expanding the DNA database, known as CODIS, raises civil liberties questions about the potential for misuse of such personal information, such as family ties and genetic conditions.

Ablin said the DNA collection would be subject to the same privacy laws applied to current DNA sampling. That means none of it would be used for identifying genetic traits, diseases or disorders.

Congress gave the Justice Department the authority to expand DNA collection in two different laws passed in 2005 and 2006.

There are dozens of federal law enforcement agencies, ranging from the FBI to the Library of Congress Police. The federal government estimates it makes about 140,000 arrests each year.

Those who support the expanded collection believe that DNA sampling could get violent criminals off the streets and prevent them from committing more crimes.

A Chicago study in 2005 found that 53 murders and rapes could have been prevented if a DNA sample had been collected upon arrest.

"Many innocent lives could have been saved had the government began this kind of DNA sampling in the 1990s when the technology to do so first became available," Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said. Kyl sponsored the 2005 law that gave the Justice Department this authority.

Thirteen states have similar laws: Alaska, Arizona, California, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

The new regulation would mean that the federal government could store DNA samples of people who are not guilty of any crime, said Jesselyn McCurdy, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Now innocent people's DNA will be put into this huge CODIS database, and it will be very difficult for them to get it out if they are not charged or convicted of a crime," McCurdy said.

If a person is arrested but not convicted, he or she can ask the Justice Department to destroy the sample.

The Homeland Security Department — the federal agency charged with policing immigration — supports the new rule.

"DNA is a proven law-enforcement tool," DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said.

The rule would not allow for DNA samples to be collected from immigrants who are legally in the United States or those being processed for admission, unless the person was arrested.

The proposed rule is being published in the Federal Register. That will be followed by a 30-day comment period.

SACRAMENTO — The state social services agency on Wednesday was moving to shut down nine homes used for child daycare and foster care after an audit found registered sex offenders living there in violation of state law.

The revelation came after state auditors compared the addresses of 75,000 licensed facilities, including foster family homes and daycare centers, with the state's database of registered sex offenders.

California Department of Social Services Director John Wagner said the audit found that the addresses of 49 sex offenders matched those of 46 child care facilities.

The department was able to confirm nine of the cases during inspections of all 46 facilities that were completed Monday, Wagner said.

Three license suspensions already are in effect — two in Los Angeles and one in San Bernardino. Two foster children were removed by local authorities in one of the cases, Wagner said.

The department would not immediately give details on the other six pending suspensions.

"It goes without saying, anyone convicted of a sex offense has no business being anywhere near a licensed facility for children," Wagner said. "Protecting children in our licensed facilities is our highest priority."

The Bureau of State Audits asked for the department's database of licensed facilities in November, but the social services agency did not learn of the matches with sex offenders until last week, Wagner said. The audit is due for release on Tuesday.

Of the 46 address matches, 25 were in Los Angeles, eight in the Central Valley, seven in the San Francisco Bay area, four in San Diego, and one each in San Bernardino and Sacramento.

In most cases, the department's inspectors could not verify that a sex offender was living at the address or found that the offender was there but children were not present.

It is a violation of state law for daycare and foster care licensees not to report the presence of a registered sex offender, Wagner said.

The Department of Social Services needs that information to conduct background checks on the license holder and others living at the home or child care center. Had the department discovered a resident was a sex offender, the license would have been denied or suspended, he said.

In the three cases in which licenses were suspended this week, one offender had been convicted of sexual battery while the other two had been convicted of oral copulation with a minor, said Larry Bolton, the department's chief lawyer.

Investigators are interviewing the children who had contact in each of the homes or day care centers.

"We haven't finished the interviews, but no indication yet" that any child was actually abused, Bolton said.

TAMPA, Fla. — Doctors say it's amazing that a 41-year-old Tampa-area woman survived after someone shot her right between the eyes while she was riding in her boyfriend's pickup truck.

Doctors think she was hit with a .44-caliber bullet that broke in two pieces, each traveling under her skin and exiting behind her ears last weekend. She was released from the hospital hours later with just stitches.

The woman says two cars started following their truck Saturday night and the occupants began yelling at them.

At a traffic light, someone in one of the cars stood up in the sunroof and started shooting back at the truck.

Part of the bullet that hit the woman exited her head, went through the back window of the truck and hit a Jeep driving behind it.

Police are still looking for the shooter.