State Police Notch The 1,000th 'Hit' In DNA Database

A Maryland State Police forensics specialist recently matched evidence from a slaying more than 15 years ago to a DNA sample in the state's swelling database of convicted felons, giving investigators a fresh lead in a case that had gone cold years ago.

It was the state's 1,000th "hit" in comparing crime scene DNA to samples taken from inmates, and a milestone that pleasantly surprised state lawmakers and police. The DNA database was established in 1994, and 12 years passed before it produced 500 hits. As the database grew, the next 500 hits came in less than two years. State scientists say the combined 14-year total of 1,000 hits in Maryland could double again in the next year.

State police and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) credited the surge in matches to a concerted effort to eliminate Maryland's backlog of unprocessed samples from convicted felons, a backlog that topped 24,000 at the end of 2006. In January, after the state police increased staff and the budget at its Pikesville lab, O'Malley announced that the backlog had been cleared.

Teresa Long, acting director of the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division, said a number of the hits that led to reaching the 1,000 milestone last week came from samples processed from the backlog. She could not immediately say how many. Because the suspect is still at large, officials declined to release details about the case involving the 1,000th hit.

About 75 percent of the matches have helped investigators close cases, state police said. The increased staff at the Pikesville lab has been funded through a $67 million, or 12 percent, increase in the state police department's budget under O'Malley, officials said.

At an event to mark the milestone Tuesday in Jessup, O'Malley said the money has been well spent.

"We are making these investments because we want Maryland to be a national leader, not in its level of violent crime, but in its improvement of public safety and the degree to which it is able to protect our citizens," O'Malley said.

State police said a bill Maryland lawmakers passed this spring could further accelerate the rate of positive DNA matches. Under the bill, police will be allowed to take DNA samples from suspects when they are charged with violent crimes or burglaries, instead of when they are convicted.