SAN DIEGO (Press Release) –San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced on Friday, June 13, her office has received a 2014 Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties (NACo) for an innovative DNA project that is boosting prosecutions and jail time for defendants who commit multiple crimes. By integrating a real-time DNA database with the District Attorney’s case management system, prosecutors are better able to match defendants they are already prosecuting to additional crimes they may have committed in separate incidents.
“I’m very proud of our team’s hard work on this project and this award is well-deserved national recognition,” said DA Dumanis.
The District Attorney’s Office, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and the San Diego Police Department launched the program more than a year ago in an effort to streamline the process of matching up DNA from current defendants to DNA found at other crime scenes.
Defendants may think they “leave no trace,” but their DNA is often left behind on cigarette butts, soda cans or through blood or other bodily fluids found at the scene. That DNA profile is loaded into the state CODIS database and the DA’s Office along with law enforcement are notified when a DNA profile matches a specific offender who is already in the CODIS database. The notifications on these hits are voluminous, and we realized we needed a better way to track and mine this important data. The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office receives more than 700 such CODIS-DNA hits each year.
_____________________________
Keeping Up With Jewish Public Officials
_____________________________
Now, through updated technology and programming designed by the District Attorney’s Information Technology Division, these CODIS hits are integrated into the DA’s computerized case management system, giving prosecutors real-time access. Through this expanded use of technology and DNA data, the District Attorney’s Office has been able to improve the process of linking defendants who are currently in custody to additional serious crimes. The most common crimes solved by this program are residential and commercial burglaries.
“Several years ago, we made a major commitment to crime reduction by expanding our DNA analysis program at the Sheriff’s Crime Lab to include property crimes – burglaries, robberies and auto thefts,” Sheriff William Gore said. “We are identifying hundreds of burglars and auto thieves every year through use of the CODIS DNA database. When we arrest a burglar, often we are arresting someone who has committed multiple crimes. With the numbers of DNA identifications climbing, it became clear that an improved system of communication between the detectives, the laboratory and the DA’s Office was necessary. The DA’s Office has done an excellent job of responding to the challenge of receiving the DNA hit information very early in the process, incorporating that information into their case management system, and effectively prosecuting these cases.”
Each month, The DA’s Office receives about 60 new CODIS DNA hits. Since this project began, DA staff has worked on nearly 5,000 hits. The figure has been reduced to less than 900 through the collaborative efforts of San Diego law enforcement, including the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and San Diego Police Department. Closing out an open DNA hit does not always result in an additional conviction. The goal of the project is not to just increase convictions, it’s to account for each DNA hit to ensure that that all leads are being investigated and that justice is being served.
“This collaborative program created between our three agencies is holding more criminals accountable for their actions while bringing added safety to all of our neighborhoods,” said San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman.
Additionally, this system notifies prosecutors if the District Attorney’s Office receives a DNA hit on a case that differs from the defendant being prosecuted, providing a necessary check and balance and supporting the District Attorney’s mission to also protect the innocent.
We have found that about 85 percent of defendants linked through these CODIS-DNA hits are already in our case management system. That means we have prosecuted them before either on the actual DNA hit case or in a separate unrelated case.
“This confirms what those of us in law enforcement knew all along,” DA Dumanis said. “That a relatively small number of people are committing a whole lot of crime in San Diego County.”
*
Preceding provided by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis