http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm? fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=1320&issue_id=112007! ! The Impact of DNA on Policing: Past, Present, and Future! ! By Raymond J.

Prime and Jonathan Newman, Centre of Forensic Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada! ! ! ! ! he 20th anniversary of the rst use of DNA1 to assist in a police investigation has passed without fanfare or recognition. In any other business, an event of this importance would have been saluted with public announcements and celebration; however, until the recent explosion of popularity of forensic science on television, the eld commanded very little public attention. Nevertheless, the various applications of DNA analysis have cemented a binding partnership between police services and forensic sciences that has changed the justice system in a way that no other investigative tool has before.! ! DNA analysis has signicantly improved police investigations by providing the potential to contribute to investigations in the following ways:! ! Solve particularly di"cult cases where all other investigative techniques have failed! ! Provide clues where there are no witnesses! ! Find application in an ever-widening range of cases! ! Reduce the number of wrongful arrests! ! Increase the reliability of evidence! ! Link together cases that otherwise could not be connected, such as local cases ranging from breaking and entering to homicide, multijurisdictional cases such as gang crimes, serial sexual assaults or murders, and major

international investigations! ! The First Use of DNA! ! DNA analysis was introduced into policing in 1986 when o"cers from a local police service in a small borough in central England approached Dr. Alec Je#reys of the University of Leicester to ask whether this new technology might be able to assist in the investigation of two potentially linked sexual assault murders of two young girls.2 Je#reys analyzed samples from the deceased girls and developed DNA proles of the perpetrator in each crime, which were found to be identical. A suspect who had confessed to one of the crimes was found to have a di#erent DNA prole; it is an interesting sidebar to this story that the rst application of DNA in a police investigation resulted in the exoneration of the confessor to the crime.3 To this day, DNA continues to eliminate suspects who might have otherwise been convicted and identies those who might be wrongfully incarcerated.! ! With the DNA results obtained by Je#reys in hand, the local police organized a collection of blood samples from all 5,000 males in the small community in Leicestershire where the crimes had occurred. These samples unfortunately did not directly identify the suspect, because he was able to convince a friend to stand in for him. However, when the friend eventually confessed the ruse, the police had their suspect. Faced with the DNA evidence, Colin Pitchfork confessed his guilt.! ! While clearly an exciting time within the circles of forensic sciences and policing, the reality of the early days of DNA technology was that the technique could be applied only to the most serious cases. In the beginning, the availability of technical specialists was limited, the sample size needed for the RFLP analysis4 was rather large, and the length of time needed to complete the laboratory analysis narrowly restricted the application of the technique. However, once the impressive value of this service had been demonstrated to the justice system, technology was soon developed to improve the speed and sensitivity of the testing. These advancements quickly led to the widespread application of DNA testing in criminal investigations.! !

! Investigative Benets of DNA Analysis! ! The judicious application of forensic science early in an investigation can lead to the development of investigative information that can save money, time, and resources for police agencies. The whole investigative process can be shortened by the inuence of such analysis on the direction of an investigation, by providing information that can be used to enhance conventional interrogative strategies and by limiting the contesting of the evidence in court. In many instances, trials are shortened or the need for a trial is eliminated altogether, further saving resources that can instead be deployed elsewhere, both for the police and the broader justice system. In instances of a guilty plea resulting from compelling evidence, the benet is not limited to monetary savings: victims are spared the emotional burden of reliving the crime at trial.! ! In the spring of 2003, 10-year-old Holly Jones went missing from her Toronto neighborhood. The day after her disappearance and over the next few days, parts of her dismembered body were located on the shores of Lake Ontario. These were identied by DNA typing. In addition, a foreign DNA prole potentially belonging to the perpetrator was developed from ngernail scrapings.i see a lot of my crime shows check for nger nail scrapings rst.! ! The investigation of this case was a huge challenge for the Toronto Police Service; however, lead investigators recognized that forensic science could play a crucial role. Faced with the daunting task of door-to-door canvassing of hundreds of possible sex o#enders and more than 2,000 tips from the general public, the traditional police investigation was considerably assisted by information provided by the forensic science laboratory. First, an examination of tapings of the victim by a trace evidence scientist provided the clue that the child had been in contact with a green carpet. During the door-to-door canvassing by front-line police o"cers armed with this information, a potential suspect was identied. After this person refused to volunteer a DNA sample, undercover police surveillance facilitated the collection of a discard DNA sample for comparison to the foreign DNA prole that had been developed. The proles matched, the suspect was arrested, and his

apartment was searched. DNA analysis revealed traces of the victims blood. Faced with the evidence, the suspect confessed and entered a guilty plea.! ! Prior to the development of DNA analysis, it was not uncommon, especially in cases of sexual assault that caused considerable anxiety to the general public, that the police, working to alleviate community concerns, would make an arrest only to nd that their evidence was not su"cient to proceed to trial; in some instances this would result in suspects ling civil lawsuits against the police. Also, when an investigation has apparently ended in the apprehension of the wrong suspect, valuable time is lost at the critical early stages of the investigation. Police now rely on DNA analysis in cases such as these and, with appropriate use of resources, it is possible to execute an arrest after the laboratory has completed the testing. It is now technologically feasible to generate DNA results in less than 48 hours, when necessary.! ! ! DNA Databanks! ! With the creation of state and national DNA databanks, investigators have another important tool that can provide investigative information. Although jurisdictions di#er in the types of o#enses that qualify for inclusion in their databanks, there is no doubt that these resources are helping to solve crimes that would have otherwise been left unsolved. In England, where the rst national DNA databank was created, samples can be collected for all o#enses on arrest; therefore, England has the largest per capita databank in the world. As the value of these databanks has become apparent, legislators continue to broaden the base of qualifying crimes, and some jurisdictions have enacted legislation requiring samples from all felons.! ! The benet of Canadas National DNA Databank was demonstrated within months of its creation. A murder case that had remained unsolved for 12 years and had encompassed more than 1,000 suspects was reinvestigated due to the advent of the DNA databank. When the perpetrators DNA prole was loaded into the databank as a result of his incarceration from an unrelated conviction, police investigators were

provided with the information with which to solve the crime. Due to the passage of time, prosecutors had to rely on the DNA results as the cornerstone of their evidence at the trial, in which the individual was found guilty of the murder.! ! DNA analysis also provides police investigators with not only the ability to develop leads for current active cases but also the opportunity to return to older, unsolved investigations. By working in partnership with scientists in the forensic science laboratory, investigators can review evidence that might have been collected for another purpose or that might have been of limited value when examined by the conventional technologies available at the time of the original investigation.! ! In Ontario, one such case was that of Linda Shaw, a young university student who was abducted, raped, and murdered in 1990 as she returned from an Easter visit home using one of the provinces busiest highways. Her death had a considerable impact on many young women who often traveled alone, and it remained unsolved for 15 years. Knowing that a DNA prole of the perpetrator had been developed from samples taken from the victim, an investigator from the Ontario Provincial Police reviewed evidence items and found that early in the investigation, hair samples had been collected from 40 persons of interest for microscopic hair comparison. Knowing also that present-day techniques allow for DNA extraction from a hair root sheath, the investigator asked the forensic biologist whether the hair samples could be tested. A microscopic examination showed that DNA analysis was possible for 20 of the hair samples, and a matching prole was developed from one of them. The perpetrator was identied as an individual who had committed suicide many years before, after he had been arrested on an unrelated matter.! ! By working in partnership with forensic scientists, police investigators can develop systematic plans for the reexamination of unsolved serious crimes. This has the value of providing a level of comfort to the victims or their families, an appropriate penalty to the accused on conviction, and, in some cases, preventing the commission of further crimes.! ! Working with the laboratory provides investigators with sound scientic advice for selecting the most appropriate samples for testing; often, the

laboratory can assist in locating the evidence samples. Mary Jane Burton, a Virginia forensic scientist, is known for having meticulously saved samples cut from the evidence items in her case les.5 These have recently been used to reopen investigations and exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals many years after Burtons death. Ironically, this practice is forbidden in a modernday, accredited laboratory environment; however, it has been replaced by more appropriate practices for storing, locating, and identifying potential evidentiary materials for future examination.! ! ! Applying DNA to High-Volume Crimes! ! Recognizing that property crimes such as breaking and entering form a signicant proportion of crimes committed and that serious o#enders either started with committing, or continue to commit, breaking and entering, police services are increasingly requesting that DNA technology be applied to these high-volume crimes. Some laboratories are able to respond by using robotic instruments to assist in the DNA analysis of items from such cases.! ! Robotic systems provide a solution for the processing of large numbers of samples, but there is usually a requirement to standardize the type of sample that the system can handle, in both the type and the amount of material available. A possible sacrice of sensitivity resulting from standardization must be weighed against the ability to increase the workow. These are issues that laboratories continue to address through research and development.! ! The British were the rst to demonstrate the value of using DNA analysis with high-volume crimes by pointing to the high success rate of either identifying suspects or links to other crimes. Jurisdictions in the United States and Canada have followed suit and report that links between the crime and a prole in the databank occur in approximately one of every ve cases submitted to the laboratory for DNA testing, providing leads to police o"cers who would otherwise have little chance of solving certain o#enses without the application of considerable investigative resources.! !

As crimes are linked together, the opportunity increases for police to identify other accomplices and le appropriate charges. Many point to the value of identifying perpetrators early in their criminal careers, noting that it is not uncommon that most who commit serious crimes have some history of involvement in lesser criminal activity such as burglary or car theft.! ! ! Mixed DNA Proles! ! One of the di"culties associated with DNA analysis is that if a sample contains DNA from more than one individual (known as a mixed prole), the proles cannot be easily separated, reducing the overall success of the testing. The solution to this problem will be aided by the ongoing development and renement of computer software to assist scientists in reaching objective and unbiased interpretations. In the future, continued improvements in technology will permit laboratories to process more samples and improve their ability to interpret mixed proles.! ! A common example of a mixed prole is that obtained in a sexual o#ense in which semen is recovered from the body of a woman. In some circumstances, the DNA contribution from the female may be far greater than that of the male perpetrator. To date, forensic scientists need to take advantage of physical/chemical properties of the sample and their own interpretation skills to generate proles specic to the male contributor. Where there is only a trace amount of DNA from the male or where there is more than one male contribution, it is not always possible to generate a result from the perpetrator that can be utilized in the investigation.! ! However, a new technique being applied more extensively in such cases is Y-STR analysis. The Y chromosome is a male-specic identier, and typing techniques are now available that develop proles specic to the male contributor of the DNA. The advantage of this test is in its high level of sensitivity; the test is able to generate a prole of a male perpetrator in the presence of DNA from a female contributor.! ! A limitation of Y-STR analysis is that the DNA prole obtained will be identical for all males within the same paternal lineage (i.e., the fathers

prole will be the same as that of his son, whose prole will also match that of his grandfather on his fathers side, and so on). The continuity through the family lineage is useful when attempting to identify an unidentied person. If investigators suspect that unidentied remains are those of a missing man who has a son, they can compare the Y-STR prole from the unidentied remains with that of a sample provided by the son. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited through the maternal line, is used in a similar way. This technique has additional applications in relation to the investigation of criminal cases and will be used more extensively with the development of more laboratories equipped to perform mtDNA testing.! ! Both Y-STR and mtDNA are restricted to specic applications where conventional STR analysis cannot be used. They are not compatible with existing DNA databanks. For this reason, a decision to consume the last small portion of a sample for this type of testing must be taken in consultation with the laboratory and with careful consideration of its value.! ! ! Future Tests! ! Some of the challenges for the future will test the balance between the needs of the law enforcement community and the publics interest in preserving its own civil liberties. Techniques are currently under development that will enable the prediction of some physical traits through DNA analysis, providing police with a potential genetic eyewitness. In addition, databanks are being used to identify perpetrators through kinship relationships to relatives whose proles may already be included in a DNA databank; this use of the technology is raising moral and ethical questions about such applications.! ! With the increasing mobility of national populations and concerns to curtail international crime and terrorism, the law enforcement community will desire to make databanks more readily accessible. By analogy, Canada and the United States recently developed an agreement to link their Integrated Ballistics Information System (IBIS) databases. This can be done more easily than with DNA databanks, which are a#ected by the

laws and principles of each jurisdiction surrounding the use of personal information associated with an intimate sample, such as a persons DNA.! ! Since the introduction of DNA evidence, it has played a key role in the investigation of numerous crimes; police now rely on DNA analysis to provide intelligence that was previously unavailable. The compelling evidentiary value of this technology has resulted in an increased expectation of impartial scientic evidence in the courts. It has been used as a part of impartial reviews of postconviction cases, and its convincing discriminatory ability has been instrumental in demonstrating support for exonerations and convictions alike.! ! Through partnerships between police and scientists, DNA analysis will continue to be regarded as the standard of excellence for the development of impartial, unbiased scientic evidence in the support of the justice system.