Policy implications for familial searching

Investigative Genetics

Table 1 State policies for familial searching and partial match disclosure

	States with formal familial searching policies
Parameter	California	Colorado	Texas	Virginia
Proportionality
Violent crimes	X	X	X	X
Nonviolent crimes		X
CODIS offenders searched
Convicted offenders	X	X	X	X
Arrestees		X	X	X
Tools for narrowing suspect pool
IBS	X	X	X	X
Likelihood ratio	X	X	X	X
YSTR analysis	X	X	X	X
Other policy specifics
Requires profiles on all 13 CODIS loci	X	X	X	X
Requires evidence profile to be single source	X		X
Permits mixtures with clearly defined profiles		X		X
Oversight committee	X^a		X^b
Requires specialized training of law enforcement		X
Requires public record verification before follow-up		X
States permitting partial match disclosure [4]
Arizona, Connecticut^c, Florida, Missouri and Nebraska^d, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Washington State^e, Wyoming

CODIS = Combined DNA Index System; IBS = identity-by-state; YSTR = Y-chromosome short tandem repeat. ^aFamilial Search Committee. ^bCommittee of four CODIS analysts recommends when to conduct familial searches. ^cRestricted to profiles where a genetic similarity "must raise the hair on the back of the analyst's neck to be worth pursuing" (Ram (2011) [4], p 770). ^d"Targeted analysis" may be conducted on a case-by-case basis and upon specific request (Ram (2011) [4], p 772). ^ePolicy addresses partial matches derived from routine moderate-stringency searches.

ISSN: 2041-2223