Just as today's law enforcement officer has learned to look routinely for fingerprints to identify the perpetrator of a crime, that same officer needs to think routinely about evidence that may contain DNA. Recent advancements in DNA technology are enabling law enforcement officers to solve cases previously thought to be unsolvable.

Today, investigators with a fundamental knowledge of how to identify, preserve, and collect DNA evidence properly can solve cases in ways previously seen only on television. Evidence invisible to the naked eye can be the key to solving a residential burglary, sexual assault, or child's murder. It also can be the evidence that links different crime scenes to each other in a

small town, within a single State, or even across the Nation. The saliva on the stamp of a stalker's threatening letter or the skin cells shed on a ligature of a strangled victim can be compared with a suspect's blood or saliva sample. Similarly, DNA collected from the perspiration on a baseball cap discarded by a rapist at one crime scene can be compared with DNA in the saliva swabbed from the bite mark on a different rape victim.

An electronic database of DNA profiles called the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) that can identify suspects is similar to the AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) database. Every State in the Nation is in the process of implementing such an index of individuals convicted of certain crimes, such as rape, murder, and child abuse that will link to the national CODIS system. Upon conviction and sample analysis, perpetrators' DNA profiles are entered into the DNA database. Just as fingerprints found at a crime scene can be run through AFIS in search of a suspect or a link to another crime scene, DNA profiles from a crime scene can be linked into the CODIS system. This gives law enforcement officers the ability to identify possible suspects when no prior suspect existed.

The development of a DNA Sample database that will store information about DNA samples is the next logical step. Forensic Scientist and law enforcement/criminal justice personnel will be able access this information using state sponsored system such as LETS (Law Enforcement Tactical System in Alabama) to obtain read-only information from this database. Using Web Services technology, these professionals have the ability to retrieve DNA sample information from a secure Internet site. This is particularly important for corrections agencies who are normally charged with the task of collecting and transmitting DNA samples to the state forensics agency for inclusion into the CODIS system.