THE INDIANA PROSECUTOR

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Busy Summer at IPAC Highlighted by Conferences

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Thank you to everyone who either attended or assisted with the Child Support Conference and the Prosecutors’ Summer Conference in French Lick. Both June events were well attended and highly reviewed.

I recently attended the National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators (NAPC) Conference and the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) Summer Conference. Each year, in July, I try to attend these two events with the goal of capturing new concepts from other states and identifying potential speakers to bring to Indiana.

Alice Dery from the Department of Justice spoke at the NAPC conference. She discussed equitable sharing rules and audit requirements regarding federal forfeitures. Federal forfeiture funds received at the local level are subject to the same federal audit requirements as all other federal grant funds. We will ask Alice to attend our Newly Elected Course in December and explain what all of this means and how it may impact prosecutors and law enforcement who participate in federal forfeiture and turnovers. Mismanagement of federal forfeitures can carry serious penalties, including loss of all federal funds for the government entity with fiscal responsibility. Prosecutors, especially those with drug task forces, need to hear what she has to say so they can avoid some of the pitfalls she identified.

The focus of the NDAA conference this year was human trafficking. A couple of the sessions disclosed some exciting new investigative resources and tools. Some of

you may be familiar with Rapid DNA testing. ANDE (www. ande.com) Corporation has developed technology that can process a DNA sample in 90 minutes. The machine that does the analysis is relatively small – approximately the size of a small copier. The machine is provided free of charge and can run up to five samples at a time at a cost of $200.00 per sample. The company makes its money selling the five sample kits. There are a couple of pilots using the equipment in other states and the technology was originally developed for the Department of Defense. The speakers from ANDE reported that developing technology will further reduce the processing time in the years to come. At the present time, it is being used as an investigative tool much like a Portable Breath Test (PBT) in alcohol. I can think of at least two homicide investigations where this technology would have been invaluable to me as a prosecutor.

The additional good news was presented by Emily Wyatt, Director of Human Trafficking Initiatives. She shared information about an online investigative tool available from Tellfinder. This tool/platform searches 260 internet sources globally including the dark web to help identify victims and perpetrators of human trafficking. It incorporates facial recognition technology to help identify people. The Manhattan District Attorney has used this tool to dramatically increase the number of successful human trafficking prosecutions. This service is free and available to all law enforcement agencies. If you are interested you can learn more about this tool at www.TellFinder.com.

Rapid improvements in science and technology are providing crime-solving tools and opportunities that were unimaginable 20 years ago. As we learn more about these developments, we will incorporate them into our training curriculums. These days, it is easy to get disenchanted with the negative news directed at law enforcement and prosecutors. However, opportunities to discover the truth through advances in science and technology have never been better. Our challenge will be keeping up and incorporating these new tools into our public safety portfolio.