Private forensic companies help law enforcement
Since 1965, nearly 350,000 murder and manslaughter cases have remained unsolved, while as many as 75,000 John and Jane Does remain unidentified. This number continues to grow as more than 4,400 unknown bodies are recovered each year on U.S. soil.
Recent advances in forensic DNA testing have made it possible to identify victims and suspects with remarkable success, even decades after a body is found. But these new technologies aren’t being used to their full capacity—because legacy gatekeepers are unwilling to collaborate with private forensics companies that have developed these new tools.
Last March, the nonprofit National Academy of Sciences (NAS) convened a two-day workshop on law enforcement and genomics, exploring the reliability, accuracy and impact of emerging technologies for forensic science. The subject matter experts behind these technologies are predominantly from the private sector. But workshop organizers did not include a single private-sector forensic practitioner or representative of any of the technologies being explored.
This omission of the private sector will result in an incomplete assessment. And because government bodies often view NAS reports as the authoritative word on technological matters, the forthcoming flawed report will have a lasting—and likely detrimental—impact on the adoption of critical new tools that could help make communities safer.
The contribution of the private sector goes back decades. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, private forensics teams worked under contract with the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to help identify some 20% of victims by utilizing then-new technology to recover genetic information from minuscule DNA samples.
Closing cold cases is vitally important. Private companies can help and already do so every day. We would be even more effective at bringing justice to victims and closure to families if forensic science gatekeepers would embrace private sector investment and technology.
David Mittelman and Mike Cariola are both CEOs of private forensic DNA laboratories.
