Archive: Around Town

Sheriff Peter Meskill announced Monday that the Tompkins County Sheriff's Department has received a $10,000 grant that will pay for training on how to collect DNA evidence as well as collection kits.  The Byrne JAG (Justice Assistance Grant) grant is part of a federal program that supports local law enforcement agencies, courts, corrections departments with training, planning, and innovation.  Meskill  says that the enhanced training and evidence kits the grant provides will go hand in hand with neighborhood watch programs to solve home and business burglaries.

"It's a great advantage for us to help us take a better look and a better approach to solving burglaries using modern techniques that are available," Meskill says.  "This grant is designed to help us learn how to properly collect DNA evidence and save it.  We have education and training for other evidence collection procedures all the time, but this is specific to DNA collection.  It will help us to understand what to look for, how to collect it, how to store it, and what to do with it.  In addition the grant helps pay for training classes and DNA evidence collection kits."

The first wave of this particular grant was focused on larger communities like Buffalo , Rochester, Onadaga County, Syracuse, Albany, among others.  Limited funding is now available for other areas.  The evidence collection kits will be used primarily at burglary scenes, and will enhance the department's ability to collect useful evidence.  While burglaries are down by about 60% in Tompkins County the Sheriff's Department requested the grant because there were many more a few years ago, and they want to be prepared for whatever the future will bring.

Meskill says he is hopeful that all his investigators, supervisors will get this training, and says he hopes that every single deputy can get the training from them.

"Our intent is to try to train the entire staff," he says.  "It's an important awareness and education for them, so that coming to a burglary crime scene we can be looking at the big picture and trying to think of what things we can look at more carefully and collect as evidence and test properly."

Processing DNA evidence is not exactly what the public has become familiar with on shows like CSI or NCIS.  The Sheriff's office doesn't have a pert goth scientist processing DNA in hours and getting instant matches on the computer.  While the actual process may only take a few days, it can take weeks or months to get a result because of the backlog. 

As with any evidence a chain of custody must be established, including an electronic chain of custody for the DNA sample that lists every chemical and each scientist that comes in contact with it.  When the sample is mapped a number profile is created that can be matched with DNA results stored in State and Federal databases.  In New York State DNA is collected and put into the database if you are convicted of certain specific crimes.  One New York City lab says that they may test each sample four times, and there is about a 70% chance of finding a match.

When Sheriff's investigators arrive at the scene of a burglary they collect anything they think might be helpful in making or solving a case while they have the crime scene secured.  Once the evidence comes back to the Tompkins County Public Safety building the decision is made about what evidence will actually be sent to the State lab.  Once the lab has analyzed the DNA the database match is attempted, and the result is returned to the Sheriff Department.

"We're not going to overwhelm the lab, because they're not going to deal with that well," Meskill says.  "The lab has been very good to us.  On some extreme major crime they've turned evidence around within a week or two, which is really fast -- unlike TV.  In other cases we've had to wait the normal couple of months to get the information processed.  We try hard not to push, or cry wolf, on something that doesn't have the severity of other things.  You build relationships with people so when you really do need assistance in a timely fashion they'll do their best for you."

Meskill says the training will start some time in October.  The State offers regional classes, so it will be a day trip for the deputies.  The grant covers transportation and lunch as well as the training sessions.  It also covers back-filling that will allow off-duty deputies to collect overtime while their colleagues are getting their training.

"DNA evidence in today's world is like fingerprints were four years ago," he says.  "It's a big deal.  It's even more accurate to my way of thinking.  The training will increase our awareness of DNA evidence, how to collect it, and what to look for at a crime scene.  It will give us another tool and an understanding of how to use all that to solve crime."

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