FBI To Unveil DNA Databank
The FBI will open a national computer system Tuesday that will allow state law enforcement officials to swap DNA evidence about unsolved cases.
Dwight Adams, chief of the FBI lab's scientific analysis section, said today that all 50 states will be linked to a bureau computer here which currently contains the genetic profiles of 250,000 convicted felons and DNA profiles from evidence left at the scene of 4,600 unsolved cases.
The states have collected another 350,000 DNA samples from convicted felons but have yet to analyze the samples and enter the genetic profiles onto the computer database. "There's a backlog," Adams said.
He noted that although all 50 states have laws authorizing blood sampling of some convicted felons to obtain DNA profiles, eight states have not yet begun collecting the actual samples.
The federal government also has yet to enact a law authorizing it to collect DNA samples from convicted felons, so all the records at this time are state records.
Adams said some states, such as Virginia, collect data from all felons including white-collar criminals, but others states have a more-restricted list of crimes covered. He said every state covers sexual assaults.
Proposed federal legislation covers only violent felons and Adams said he thought it would be enacted relatively soon.
The DNA in the unsolved-case database is taken from crime scenes. DNA profiles can be obtained from semen collected following a rape, blood left on broken glass during a break-in or even bits of an assailant's skin caught under a victim's fingernails during an assault.
Adams said since last December the FBI has been conducting an eight-state test of the system and has been able to match almost 200 cases to individuals. In the first such success, a Wisconsin rape case was matched to a convicted felon in Illinois.
When local police labs take evidence from a convicted felon or crime scene, they load the DNA profiles into a state computer system. The states then decide which of the records are loaded into the FBI computer, known as the National DNA Index System.
When a state wants to make a comparison, it first checks locally, then statewide, then among nearby states and finally nationally in this computerized system. Each broader request of the database takes more time.
If there are no matches between local evidence and the convicted-felon profiles, the locality would go back and try to match its evidence with the profiles in the unsolved cases to see if any of them could be linked and possibly help investigators reach a solution.
Adams said if a match with a felon's profile occurs, that provides probable cause to get a court order to obtain a new blood sample from that felon to compare with any crime-scene evidence.
The states pay for their end of the system and the FBI pays for managing the national computer.
Written by Michael Sniffen