New Law Results In DNA Matches To Old Criminal Cases

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By Abrahm Hurt
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—Of the thousands of DNA samples that have been collected so far this year by the Indiana State Police, 244 have been matched with old, criminal investigations.

As of Jan. 1, 2018, Senate Enrolled Act 322 requires all felony arrestees to submit a DNA sample taken by a cheek swab along with fingerprints and photographs during the arrest.

“The immediate benefit is connecting more unknown samples to known samples so those police agencies can advance their investigation, make an arrest and get criminals off the streets so that they don’t victimize other people,” Capt. David Bursten, chief public information officer, said.

The DNA is collected at a local county jail, and the samples are then forwarded to the ISP Indianapolis Regional Laboratory for analysis and entry into the Combined DNA Index System.

CODIS is national database allowing state, local and federal law enforcement to exchange and compare profiles to help identify serial offenders, close unsolved criminal cases and exonerate the innocent. If a DNA profile matches a profile already in the system, it will produce what is called a “hit.”

“It’s the same system. It’s not a changed system,” Bursten said of the newly collected data. “This has been around for more than a decade and a half. All it is is a change to what’s permitted and put into the system.”

Prior to Jan 1, only convicted felons could have their DNA put into the system.

From January to March,12,705 samples have been collected. Of the samples, 3,330 are convicted offenders and 9,375 are felony arrest samples.

Of the 244 CODIS hits:

  • 46 hits attributed to the 3,330 new convicted offender samples collected Jan. 1 to March 31
  • 72 hits attributed to the 9,375 felony arrest samples collected Jan. 1 to March 31
  • 126 hits attributed to recently completed unsolved crime scene samples
  • Nine of the 126 hits are a case to case matches
  • The other 117 of the 126 are new case profiles that match offenders previously entered in CODIS

The first arrestee hit was on Jan. 14 and was matched to an unsolved rape investigation that began in 2016.

Bursten could not provide case-specific examples because the data is sent back to the contributing agencies to do they’re following up the investigation.

Rep. Greg Steuerwald, R-Avon, said the new law is producing positive results, and the rate of DNA matches is about four-times higher than what the state averaged prior to the new law.

“After just three months in effect, this new law is already proving it’s a useful tool in connecting felony arrestees to unsolved crimes,” Steuerwald said in a press release. “Investigators have matched over 200 DNA profiles to crimes across 44 counties throughout Indiana, and 23 other states.”

Bursten said in 2017 they input, on average, about 1,100 samples per month. In the first three months of 2018, they are inputting an average of 3,300 samples per month.

“We are very pleased with the results seen thus far and are confident more and more crimes will be solved with the combination of convicted and arrested person samples being matched in the CODIS program,” said Maj. Steve Holland, commander of the Indiana State Police Laboratory Division in a statement.

If a person is acquitted of all felony charges, the charges are downgraded to misdemeanors, all felony charges are dropped or no felony charges are filed within 365 days, the DNA is removed from the database.

However, it’s up to the person who was arrested to get the DNA sample erased from the database by submitting a form to the prosecutor requesting that it be removed. It is the prosecutor’s responsibility to submit that order to police and get it removed.

FOOTNOTE: Abrahm Hurt is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

 

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