INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana's new DNA law has already proved a successful tool to help law enforcement connect suspects to crimes across the state and country.
The law, which took effect in January, requires jails to take DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony instead of waiting until they are convicted of the crime.
If a person is acquitted of a felony, charges are lowered to a misdemeanor, or no charges are filed within a year, the DNA sample may be expunged from the system.
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From January 1 to March 31, 2018, more than 12,700 DNA samples were collected from both felony arrests and convictions. More than 9,000 of those samples were collected from felony arrests.
According to Indiana State Police, that DNA collected from felony arrests linked 72 suspects to unsolved crimes.
In that same period, DNA collected from convicted offenders linked suspects to 46 different crimes.
The first hit investigators had was two weeks after the first sample was collected. On January 14, Indiana State Police say they were able to link a DNA sample to an unsolved rape case from 2016.
READ | Investigators use DNA to help crack 20-year-old rape case
They have also linked DNA samples to cases in 23 other states across the country.
“We are very pleased with the results seen thus far and are confident more and more crimes will be solved with the combination of convicted and arrested persons samples being matched in the CODIS program," said Major Steve Holland, commander of the Indiana State Police Laboratory Division. “None of this would have been possible without the enabling legislation, as well as the cooperation of all the county jail personnel who collect the DNA samples and the diligent efforts of state police laboratory scientists that are processing these samples for input into CODIS.”
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