Cape investigators, others expanding use of DNA analysis

DNA analysis is most commonly used in violent offense cases, such as rape and murder. But many law enforcement jurisdictions, including Cape Girardeau, are beginning to expand its use to help solve other types of crimes, even nonviolent ones.

According to a recently completed three-year study by the Urban Institute, DNA evidence was able to identify suspects in more than twice as many property crime cases as those where physical evidence was not processed at the crime scene. Twice as many of those cases were accepted for prosecution.

In Europe, many law enforcement agencies have been using DNA since 2001 to solve property crimes.

Last October, Cape Girardeau police used DNA analysis in connection with a drug trafficking case. Originally, a Cape Girardeau judge dismissed the charges, but Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle received a lab report showing the suspect had allegedly handled a bag containing crack cocaine. Swingle's office refiled charges in the case and the judge found probable cause to uphold the charges and bound the case over to circuit court.

Cape Girardeau police detective Joe Tado, who supervises the criminal investigation unit, said that aside from that case he can't recall using DNA evidence in many drug investigations. Usually the circumstances surrounding those types of offenses contain sufficient evidence to make a case against a suspect without using DNA tests, he said.

The Urban Institute study evaluated the expansion of DNA evidence collection in residential and commercial burglaries and thefts from automobiles in five U.S. cities. They found that DNA evidence led to an arrest in 31 percent of the cases studied, as opposed to 12 percent of the cases where physical evidence was collected but never tested.

Tado said local police have successfully used DNA testing in firearms violations cases recently, when skin cells are found on a gun, to show a suspect handled the weapon.

"The only time we ask that DNA evidence be performed is cases where there isn't enough evidence without it, or cases where it could answer questions we have about the case," Tado said.

The Urban Institute's study found that performing DNA tests on each suspect in those types of nonviolent crimes added an average of $4,502 to the cost of handling the case.

"These costs represent the investment required to solve cases that would otherwise go unsolved," the report said. Each case is relative, and cost weighs heavily on the decision of whether to request a DNA test, which is why police are careful about the situations in which they use the investigative tool, Tado said.

Using DNA evidence may also drag out a case longer than the proceeding would normally take, but that usually doesn't factor into the determination of whether to use it, Tado said.

"It may be an issue, but not an overriding one," he said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245

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