DNA can take police away from suspects

BUREAU COUNTY -- It can go either way. The double helix, deoxyribonucleic acid -- DNA -- can lead police to, or away from, crime suspects. For instance, it led police to the alleged killers in the Brown's Chicken massacre in 1993. At the same time, post-conviction DNA testing won the release of two Illinois inmates in a murder case. But DNA can only take investigators down a particular path if they have the DNA. For the last 12 years, DNA collection has involved blood samples, but as of Jan. 12, blood will be exchanged for saliva as new DNA collection kits become available to law enforcement agencies. No longer will county deputies have to take inmates to Perry Memorial Hospital for an invasive blood draw. Now the DNA sample collection will be as simple as swabbing a cheek. Bureau County Sheriff John Thompson is "optimistic" about the new system. "In the past, (the process) has been intrusive, uncomfortable and expensive," he said. "Now it will be a very simple process. Minimal effort and not much time." That was part of the reason for the switch from a blood draw to a cheek swab, said Karen Kucharik, state administrator of the Combined DNA Indexing System, CODIS and supervisor of the state DNA Indexing Laboratory. "We made the switch to buccal (swab) kits to help agencies with (compliance) and cost," she said. Cost, for Bureau County Sheriff's Office, has been a major concern. Though the agency only did a single DNA test during 2003 because most of the felons' testing is done at the Department of Corrections, it cost them nearly $400. "You've got three hours, minimum, for the deputy's time," Thompson said. "Plus mileage, though it's not much here to Perry (Memorial Hospital) and then the cost of the blood draw." Part of that time crunch, he said, was spent at the hospital getting all the correct forms signed and then waiting for medical personnel to be available to make the draw. With the new kits, correctional officers will be able to take samples at the jail and get those samples mailed directly to the state lab in pre-postage paid packaging. The kits also include a CD-ROM containing instructions on obtaining and packaging the sample. Before the kits were made available, Thompson had begun pursuing a deal with the county health department. It would have resulted in health department employees doing the draws at a charge of $20 rather than the $300 Perry charged. "That's just what it cost us," said Craig Bientema, administrator of the county health department. "We were just going to do it with the regular Tuesday/Thursday blood draws we do." Bientema has no concerns about deputies doing the new procedure because it is not an invasive procedure. Sampling began in 1992, when the state took DNA only from sex offenders. Kucharik said that ran to between 1,800 and 2,000 samples per year. But in August, 2002, then Gov. George Ryan signed a statute called "All Felons Legislation." That required law enforcement to take DNA samples from everyone convicted of a felony crime, along with sex offenders. "We're looking at a projected increase to about 100,000 cases (per year)," Kucharik said. To deal with the increase, Kucharik has hired a number of new employees and has written new protocols that will allow the samples to be tested robotically. The point of the sample collections, Thompson said, was to create a database similar to the state's fingerprint database. It would allow comparisons of DNA left at crime scenes to those in the database. If there was a match, then officers would have new leads to follow. But parts of the database and its methodology are still undefined. How long, for instance, will the samples be kept on file? "Right now, there is no time limit," Kucharik said. Lab and law enforcement officials have discussed when to release the sample, such as when an offender has died, but they have not yet made any decisions.