By Dena Weiss
In Public Safety
For the past five years, forensic scientists have been taking advantage of their ability to collect Touch DNA, small samples of DNA from evidence that has been handled by suspects. Items such as vehicle steering wheels, gun grips, door handles, and victim’s clothing have provided valuable evidence linking offenders to a victim or crime scene.
Collection of Touch DNA is simple: evidence is collected by law enforcement personnel using sterile swabs and submitted to a crime laboratory for analysis. When Touch DNA technology first became available, crime laboratories were limiting evidence processing to violent crimes. As the price of testing procedures decreases, Touch DNA analysis of property crime evidence has become more feasible.
What’s next? New research has found that bacteria may be the next generation of forensic evidence used in police investigations.
Full Story: Law Enforcement Investigation Tools Expand Beyond DNA to Bacteria
