Session Date: August 18, 2005
Annual Meeting Session Summary: Crime Technology: Science Meets Law and Order
By Jeff Reading
Communications Officer, Washington Legislature
This summary is provided for information purposes only. NCSL does not endorse any views it contains.
SEATTLE - State legislatures should maximize the potential of DNA sampling and GPS tracking to keep our communities safe, a panel of law enforcement experts told state legislators on Thursday at the National Conference of State Legislatures' 2005 Annual Meeting.
Dr. John Morgan, assistant director of the National Institute of Justice, said that there is no more powerful tool than DNA sampling available to law enforcement agencies for identifying suspects or missing persons in criminal cases. But Morgan noted that there are barriers to realizing the DNA sampling's full potential.
Morgan urged legislators to adopt "all felons databases" in their own states rather than databanks that limit DNA sample collections to violent offenders.
At the same time, Morgan noted that DNA analyses are meeting delays as demand increases without a corresponding increase in laboratory capacity. Presently, there are 200,000 to 300,000 untested convicted offender samples, 200,000 samples that are still under review, and a backlog of 500,000 convicted offenders who have yet to be sampled nationwide, according to Morgan. He urged legislators to commit to eliminating this backlog by funding additional laboratory capacity, criminal justice training, and the stimulation of research and development in their own states.
"The federal government has stepped in with $1 billion to address this problem," said Morgan, referring to the President's DNA Initiative. "But we need an exit strategy. This is the responsibility of the states."
According to Morgan, in the U.S., 40,000 decedents go unidentified each year. The U.S. Department of Justice has developed uniform standards for the collection of DNA from unidentified remains, the assessment of high-risk missing persons, the reporting of cases to proper law enforcement agencies, and management of backlogs. Morgan urged legislators to adopt these missing persons protocols. More information can be found on this model legislation at www.dna.gov.
Hoyt Layson Jr, designer of the first GPS program for the tracking of convicted felons, discussed the emerging field of crime scene correlation. Layson, chief technologist for the Florida firm Satellite Tracking of People (STOP), said crime scene correlation can dramatically reduce recidivism rates.
By integrating the electronic monitoring of offenders with crime scene mapping in a Web-based application that makes data available to probation officers, police officers and crime scene analysts, Layson said law enforcement agencies can see when a crime scene and a prior offender correlate. According to Layson, 67 percent of offenders are incarcerated again within two years of their release. In Florida, when crime scene correlation has been in operation since 2002, the recidivism rate has been brought down to less than 5 percent.
Florida Representative Dick Kravitz discussed Florida's Jessica Lunsford Act of 2005, crafted after last spring's murder of a 9-year-old Florida girl by a convicted sex offender. The Jessica Lunsford Act requires child sex offenders to be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison and then be electronically monitored for the rest of their lives, according to Kravitz, prime sponsor of the act. It also requires all sex offenders to wear a monitoring device for the duration of their probation once they are released from prison.
"If the protections of this bill had been in place before Jessica Lunsford was killed, that little girl would still be alive today," Kravitz said.
Barry Scheck, director of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin Cardoza School of Law, reminded legislators that as law enforcement agencies rely more and more on crime labs to provide forensic analyses, the need for accuracy becomes more acute.
"For every wrongful conviction, the real perpetrator goes free," said Scheck, whose Innocence Project has resulted in the exoneration 161 wrongfully convicted and incarcerated individuals.
Scheck unveiled model crime laboratory oversight legislation to establish an independent state science commission, and to develop a reporting system through which laboratories report misconduct or negligence.
NCSL is a bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the states, commonwealths and territories. It provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues and is an effective and respected advocate for the interests of the states in the American federal system.
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