Law enforcement technologyFlorida's effective DNA database
Police in Palm Bay, Florida, four years ago started a local DNA database as a quicker alternative to the state’s backlogged crime labs; the average wait to get results now is fifty-seven days, as opposed to the six- to 12-month turnaround from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement — which processes most state agencies’ samples; the kits used by Palm Bay also cost $100, compared to the $800 for DNA analysis charged by other state-approved labs
Within thirty days of Florida police officers receiving death threats scrawled in red crayon, DNA linked one note to 31-year-old Jennifer Delores Cross of Palm Bay — a woman well-known to police and whose DNA profile was already in the database from an unrelated case.
“They had messages like, ‘do you want to die, I’m going to burn your house down.’ We had to take the threats as credible,” Palm Bay Detective Mike Pusatere said of the letters that started showing up at police officers’ homes in December.
“With DNA, all we needed was something the size of a cell,” Pusatere said.
Cross’s arrest was the latest credited to the agency’s local DNA database that was started four years ago as a quicker alternative to the state’s backlogged crime labs. The average wait to get results now is fifty-seven days, as opposed to the six- to 12-month turnaround from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement — which processes most state agencies’ samples.
The kits used by Palm Bay also cost $100, compared to the $800 for DNA analysis charged by other state-approved labs.
DNA evidence has been a mainstay of criminal investigations since the 1980s, when the federal government outlined how forensic evidence and DNA profiles could be collected.
Palm Bay was among the first municipal departments in Florida to train its officers to collect DNA. The pilot program is now being adopted by other agencies nationwide.
Palm Bay Police Chief Doug Muldoon said he envisions the collection of genetic material becoming as common for local patrol officers as fingerprinting.
“We are very diligent about feeding the database. The more samples we have, the more results we yield, and we are seeing the fruits of our labors now with many, many cases being solved,” Muldoon said.
Police say the impact was immediate. DNA linked burglars to multiple crime scenes and helped usher in a 60 percent reduction in property loss in the program’s first year. According to Palm Bay police statistics, residential and commercial burglaries cost residents about $11 million in property losses in 2007.
Within a year of using the database, property losses dropped to $4.8 million, and even lower in 2010 to $4.1 million.
Maj. John Blackledge, who oversees the Palm Bay program, attributes the drop directly to arrests generated by the DNA testing.
