No Southern Indiana matches yet from new felony DNA law

Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 322 was authored last spring by state Sen. Erin Houchin, R-Salem, and went into effect at the first of the year. It requires jails in Indiana to perform DNA samples on all people arrested on preliminary felony charges.

The samples are regularly sent to the Indiana State Police laboratory and entered into the state's Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS. 

While the jails didn't previously do DNA sampling, representatives for Clark and Floyd County jails said implementing the simple procedures have gone off without a hitch.

Lt. Col. Scottie Maples with the Clark County Sheriff's Office said that the new program, a simple swab on each cheek, is not a burden on the office.

“When you get booked into jail, you get your fingerprints, you get your picture taken, you get patted down, you get your property inventory [checked],” he said. “We just added this as another step in the booking process.”

There weren't numbers available yet on the number of swabs given — it can vary from day to day, he said.

“It just depends on how many people are arrested for felonies on a daily basis,” he said. “[It] could be zero, it could be 30.”

Likewise in Floyd County, Sheriff Frank Loop said the first six weeks have been smooth.

“We've not had any issues at all,” he said, adding that he had expected some resistance from inmates at the new law.

He said before the law took effect, the department would get a couple of DNA matches a year through the CODIS system. Prior to the law, some felons were tested by investigating departments, and DNA is always gathered at crime scenes if it is available, regardless of whether there is a suspect in the case.

Loop said while few matches recently that involved DNA samples, he doesn't believe any are a direct result of the law yet.

“If we submit DNA in a case, it might take six months before they come back to us and say 'you got a hit on this guy,'” Loop said. “Since the law is so new, we probably haven't got any directly related to that.”

But the data being added to the system may soon prove to be beneficial in identifying suspects in Southern Indiana cases.

“I do think it's only a matter of time before this does result in solving unsolved crimes here in Clark County,” Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said.

If a match is made, he said, the investigating police department would be notified, which would then notify the prosecutor's office. 

"And we would move forward to firm up that data and make sure it was accurate and conduct additional investigation,” Mull said.

While those skeptical of the legislation have argued it crosses a line into privacy rights since it gathers evidence from people who are accused but not yet convicted, proponents say the benefits outweigh the cost.

“I don't see how it wouldn't be helpful,” Maples said, referring to cases that the Clark County Sheriff's Office works. “If we go to a scene, we always collect DNA if DNA is present,” he said. “This may help link us to a suspect.”

While there haven't been any matches directly in Clark or Floyd counties since the program started in January, the CODIS system has helped secure Clark County convictions. A suspect in a 2001 sexual battery cold case was later charged and convicted in 2009 because of accessing the DNA nationwide, Mull said.

He said he thinks one of the strongest points in the law is how it can aide sex crime cases.

“I think that sex offenses and child molesting are a category of crime that [is] especially heinous,” he said. “This particular law is going to yield the most benefits in identifying these perpetrators.”

No hard numbers are available on the data the Indiana State Police is collecting from Indiana's 92 counties, according to Capt. David Bursten, ISP's chief public information officer. Bursten said the ISP is starting to analyze the information and expects to be able to present it in the near future.