The signing into law last month of a bill that allows DNA profiles collected at police booking stations to be uploaded to the national database will further open the market to rapid DNA systems that have dramatically reduced the time it takes from sample collection to result, say companies that develop and sell the technology.
This is a “pretty radical change in what we can do from a public safety perspective in terms of identifying individuals with high confidence,” George Heinrichs, CEO of Massachusetts-based ANDE, tells HSR. He says that currently 18 states allow for processing of DNA to occur “instantly, and in those expect testing of arrestees to make sure before they release them that they’re not implicated in other serious crimes.”
IntegenX Inc. introduced its desktop Rapid HIT DNA sample processing and identification system in 2013 and ANDE its desktop ANDE unit in 2014. The easy to use systems require little training and mean that that anyone collecting DNA samples, whether for military, law enforcement, immigration control or refugee admissions, no longer has to wait weeks or months for an accredited lab to perform the work.
Robert Schueren, president and CEO of California-based IntegenX, tells HSR that in his state that there are between 10,000 and 11,000 arrestee samples per month that go to one test point and takes more than four weeks to generate a DNA profile. The systems offered by ANDE and IntegenX return results in less than two hours, meaning police and other law enforcement authorities that have the technology would be in a position to hold an arrestee and conduct database checks for potential links to other crimes.
Both companies say that business is already good for their products, with military and government customers globally driving demand. Schueren says the Rapid DNA Act, signed by President Donald Trump in August, will provide more “incremental” opportunities to expand sales.
Heinrichs says the industry has “more of a footprint” with militaries but “not much” with the law enforcement community where “It’s just now starting to build.” The Rapid DNA Act will be a “major factor” in bringing this technology to the law enforcement community over the next few years, he says.