PALM BAY POLICE DEPARTMENT

In January 2007, the Palm Bay Police Department and DNA Security, Inc. announced a partnership. This partnership involves the use of DNA to help solve a variety of crimes, not just violent felonies. In the past, the cost of processing DNA evidence was cost prohibitive and lacked a thorough database. The database is not available to law enforcement on a routine basis. DNA Security, Inc. decided to use the Palm Bay Police Department in a pilot program.

This program is the first of its kind in the nation and was offered free of charge to the city in exchange for providing DNA samples from all types of crimes, not just violent felonies. It was the belief of both the Palm Bay Police Department and DNA Security, Inc. that the offenders who have committed violent crimes had also committed minor criminal offenses. The only way to prove this theory was to begin taking DNA samples as evidence at every crime scene, not just violent felonies.

In an effort to test this theory, all officers, detectives, and crime scene technicians have had specialized training in the proper techniques of collection of DNA evidence and packaging processes. They have also received training regarding legal aspects of collection to include possible suspects and elimination samples. Since the training, a large number of DNA samples have been taken from both arrested persons and other persons who have volunteered to provide their DNA.

Forensic DNA processing costs range from $500 to $1200 per sample. While this cost factor substantially reduces the number of evidence items submitted for high profile cases such as homicides, it completely eliminates the ability to utilize DNA processing for lower level crimes such as burglary. Although the more serious crimes naturally get the approval for funds expenditures, law enforcement is missing a huge opportunity to solve hundreds of lower level crimes.

While the FBI Laboratory's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) exists, the information maintained there is extremely limited. It is not an effective way for local agencies to determine identities of criminals committing the majority of crimes in their jurisdictions.

The City of Palm Bay is a 98 square mile suburban community primarily consisting of residential neighborhoods. The city has experienced rapid growth in the last three years with the population exceeding 100,000 residents in 2006 and currently standing at 107,089. Although this growth has been welcomed in the community, it has brought with it an alarming increase in drug trafficking and interrelated violent crimes. Many of these offenders have past criminal histories involving petty crimes. This project has the potential to impact a wide array of criminal activity from minor crimes to drug offenses to major violent crime.

DNA Securities, Inc. has already processed over 2,000 items of evidence and reference for DNA profiles. They have created the Local DNA Indexing System (LODIS), the database which reveals the connection between items of evidence and otherwise unrelated criminal incidents showing relationships between evidence and suspects. In the three months the department and DNA Securities, Inc. have worked together building the database, the department has already seen positive results. There have been matches of DNA evidence taken from crime scenes to suspects of other criminal activity. For example, a DNA sample was collected from a drink bottle left in a stolen vehicle. A reference sample (one in which the person is known) was given voluntarily by a young man during an unrelated encounter with an officer on a different day. Once the two items were processed and entered into the database, the computer indicated that the two DNA samples matched. This linked the young man to the stolen vehicle. Another example was of a person who had given a DNA sample after being arrested for a retail theft. Shortly after that incident, DNA Securities, Inc. was able to match the same person’s DNA with DNA evidence which had been left at the scene of a burglary. DNA evidence is not unlike fingerprint evidence in that it may be used to produce evidence against a suspect, but it may also be used to identify suspects for further investigation and/or surveillance. The localized DNA database will function much like the AFIS system does with fingerprints. It is common knowledge and an accepted criminology statistic that a small number of criminals commit more than 89% of crimes. Also, a substantial number of violent crimes are committed by persons who had committed petty crimes in the past. The general premise of a localized forensic DNA database is predicated on the these facts. As more evidence and reference samples are collected, more connections will be discovered between crimes and suspects. Over a period of time, this information should grow exponentially. The database will develop into an intricate web linking unrelated crimes to the perpetrators. The Palm Bay Police Department has always made a priority of serving the citizens of their community. This is done by finding new ways to professionally and ethically solve crimes with an innovative approach. One of these innovative approaches is through the ever changing world of technology. Officers investigating everything from burglaries to vandalisms have attempted to obtain DNA evidence from the crime scenes. As a result, a local DNA database, LODIS, was created. The DNA samples were compared against the LODIS database to see if any matches were discovered. Shortly after the birth of the project, the matches between the suspect DNA and the sample DNA were beginning to be discovered.

While still in the early stages of this partnership, the agency looks forward to being able to solve more crimes through this technology. This program will allow the Palm Bay Police Department to move into the future of law enforcement years ahead of the rest of the nation.

For more information please contact Diana Blackledge at blackd@palmbayflorida.org.