Partnerships between public and private labs can help reduce DNA backlogs by providing the extra resources public labs often lack.

Prior to the advent of forensic DNA technology, public forensic laboratories conducted essentially all of their examinations internally, sometimes in conjunction with a university. Few, if any, private laboratories could provide sufficient capacity and variety of forensic examinations (and subsequent testimony) of physical and biological evidence collected from crime scenes. Even chemical analyses of controlled substances and post-mortem toxicology backlogs were commonplace and hence a serious hindrance and delay to criminal investigations and the judicial system. Times have changed and it is clear that more partnerships between private and public laboratories will be needed to assist in reducing forensic casework backlogs.

In the late 1980s when the concept of personal identification of a single individual through DNA analysis became a reality, the revolutionary applications to forensic science and to criminal investigations were intuitively obvious. So too, however, was the immediate need for capacity far beyond those of typically under-funded, understaffed crime labs.

In 1989, the first DNA databank law in the U.S. was passed in Virginia and by 1990; samples from convicted felons in Virginia prisons came pouring in. By 1993, Virginia experienced its first of many “cold hits” to come. Forensic science had finally become a valuable tool in the investigative phase of criminal activities being conducted by the law enforcement agencies. In 1995 Virginia’s DNA database identified the perpetrator of the 1989 rape of Debbie Smith in Williamsburg. Her case and her role in promoting the impact of this technology became the subject of a feature-length Lifetime movie (“A Life Interrupted: The Debbie Smith Story.”) As police and the public began to observe the potential of this DNA databank concept, the volume of samples exploded. Also exploding was the expansion of persons to be included in these state databanks.

By late 1996 Virginia had accrued a backlog of about 180,000 of these DNA samples from convicted felons and had only been able to type about 10,000 samples in-house. All of Virginia’s Department of Forensic Science (DFS) serology/forensic biology resources were already working against a growing backlog of DNA crime scene evidence. Clearly the full power of the infant DNA databank would only be realized when both crime scene DNA profiles and convicted felon profiles were all entered into CODIS and compared.

In early 1997, Bode Technology presented a unique proposal to Virginia DFS wherein Bode would process 60,000 convicted offender samples per year over three years in exact conformance to stringent DFS protocols and a 100%review by DFS. At this juncture, few forensic lab directors had expressed an interest in outsourcing large volumes of forensic DNA samples. However, the Virginia DFS started to consider that partnership with an accredited, private DNA laboratory may be the best answer to the backlog issue and, most importantly, allow them to begin using this tool for solving no suspect crimes in the Commonwealth and preventing future ones. The DFS decided to outsource the typing of the convicted felon samples. By 2001 Virginia had a database of 130,000 unique profiles and cold DNA databank “hits” became a matter of record (Figure 1).

Using Virginia’s model and data, states all over the country soon followed suit with similar laws. Today, private accredited laboratories have contributed millions of profiles to NDIS laboratories for upload into CODIS. Bode has worked with over half the U.S. states to reduce convicted offender backlogs and has contributed over one million profiles for upload into CODIS.

In addition to assisting crime laboratories with convicted offender samples, many private laboratories provide assistance in forensic casework. Initially most forensic casework evidence handled by DNA crime laboratories came only from violent crimes, but the benefits of analyzing evidence from all types of cases, especially property crimes soon became apparent.