Texas City Uses DNA Evidence To Solve Property Crimes

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Texas City Uses DNA Evidence To Solve Property Crimes Police in one Texas city have joined a small group of departments around the country in using DNA evidence to solve routine property crimes. Reporter: Associated Press

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Police in Austin have joined a small group of departments around the country that are using DNA evidence to solve routine property crimes.

DNA evidence such as saliva or drops of blood has helped Austin police crack otherwise hard-to-solve cases.

Detectives say that in several of the rare instances when they collected DNA evidence at property crime scenes, the evidence led to arrests or more clues in cases that probably would have remained unsolved.

Police say they have submitted DNA evidence from about 50 property crime scenes in the city this year and identified 10 suspects by comparing it with DNA profiles in a national database of criminals, which is a tiny percentage of the nearly 38,000 property crimes committed in the city each year.

Among major Texas cities, Austin has the only department collecting and testing DNA samples in property crime cases.

The city opened its new crime lab in 2004 and has a small case backlog.

Latest Comments

Posted by: Anonymous on Dec 1, 2008 at 08:03 AM

How are they paying for this? Is the legislature slipping them cash under the table to protect their high dolllar townhouses they live in for a few months while the State Congress is in session, or what? And while this high tech, high dollar, low usage lab processes burglary evidence for lack of anyting better to do, MURDERS in Bryan (and almost certainly other areas) get backlogged for 6 months or more at the State Police labs just down the road...

Posted by: JohnLloydScharf Location: Salem, Oregon on Nov 30, 2008 at 09:48 PM

The Courts are convinced DNA evidence is absolute certainty. IT IS NOT. The DNA profiles use a small part of our DNA. Raymond Easton suffers from Parkinson's disease. By the year 2000 he was so disabled that he could not manage to dress himself alone. In spite of this he was charged with a burglary which had taken place 200 miles away from his home. Three years earlier Raymond was involved in a family dispute. He had been cautioned and a DNA sample was taken. Raymond's DNA matched that found at the scene of the burglary. Fortunately DNA testing offered a way out of the situation it had created. Once a fuller DNA analysis was made, differences between Raymond's DNA and that of the burglar became clear and the charges against him were dropped. Despite its increased resolution, DNA profiling is often not enough. Mark Benecke, one of Europe's leading consultant forensic biologists,based in Cologne, Germany, said, "Wrongful convictions can only be made if DNA is looked upon as the only evidence." The integration of different sources of forensic evidence and their combination with investigative and legal procedures are even more significant than progress in any single field, such as DNA testing.

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