RICHMOND, Calif. -- A California plan that has expanded funding for and the size of the DNA testing lab in Richmond has received harsh criticism Monday from critics who said it violates people's privacy.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown is scheduled to attend a ceremony at the lab to mark the completion of the $10 million expansion of the facility.

State DNA Lab Expansion Sparks Privacy Controversy

The DNA lab expansion has the support of some of the state's top officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"Every cold hit in the database is an opportunity to solve a case," said Schwarzenegger.

DNA has actually helped free an increasing number of innocent prisoners throughout California and specifically in Santa Clara County, according to the county district attorney's office.

Phyllis Boatman is relieved that 20 years after her friend Kristi Harris was killed in her San Jose apartment, DNA evidence led to an arrest.

Last month, Charles Grant, 48, Harris' former neighbor, was charged with the crime.

"I just kept thinking 'I hope someday they catch him' and with the cold cases they solved I thought they might."

The state's DNA database hosts more than 1 million DNA profiles and the expansion aims to accommodate more than 2 million samples expected over the next 5 years.

The 28,000 square-foot expansion will allow the facility to collect the growing number of DNA samples required by a proposition passed by voters in 2004.

Proposition 69, passed by voters in 2004, asks the state to start collecting DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony beginning Jan. 1, 2009.

The samples are still taken even if the arrested person is ultimately not charged.

There are some who say that amounts to a violation of privacy.

Ellen Kreitzberg works with Innocence Project at Santa Clara University, investigating cases of wrongful convictions.

"We know people who are innocent (who) are arrested all the time, Kreitzberg said.

The additional DNA sampling raises privacy issues, especially among minorities who studies show are more likely to be arrested.

"Even if charges are dropped its very difficult to get the file purged," Kreitzberg said. "The person arrested has to initiate a proceeding in writing and ask to have it purged and it's completely up to a judge as to whether or not to do it."

According to the attorney general's office, to date, the state laboratory has produced 6,000 hits linking crime scenes and offenders in the DNA database.

The lab tests about 200,000 samples a month.

Gov. Schwarzenegger said that number is expected to double next year when the new law takes effect.

The California Attorney General's Office has the third largest DNA database in the world, following the national databases and in the U.S. and United Kingdom.