Join a panel of experts from the East Baton Rouge as they delve into their innovative strategies for combating the surge in gun violence within the community.
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[MUSIC]
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Hello, I'm Tabitha Bandi, and I'm here today at HIDS at Bodie Technology.
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Today we have Erin Sweeney, the Lab Director at Bodie Technology.
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Major Todd Morris from East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office.
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District Attorney Hiller Moore from East Baton Rouge Parish.
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And Erica Sparicino from Louisiana State Police Crime Lab.
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She's the Forensic DNA Manager.
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We want to talk about how they have strengthened the fight against crime
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using advancement in forensic technology.
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So I know that at the onset of COVID-19,
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at East Baton Rouge experienced an uptick in crime.
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Was this part of what motivated you all to come together?
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And how did you bring on board the other agencies and organizations to help?
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>> Yeah, so actually before COVID, in the job that I have,
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I'm able to travel around the country and look at other District Attorney's
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offices
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to see what they're doing and how they do it.
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And prior to COVID, BJA was looking for
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a prosecutor-led programs to give some grant money to one was a crime-good
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intelligence center.
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And we visited the Denver Crime-Good Intelligence Center,
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which is associated with the laboratory there.
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And that's where I met that lab director and BJA and they visited Baton Rouge
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and
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looked at the collaboration that we had at the time going.
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And they said, we think this would be a great place to start a prosecutor-led
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CGIC program there knowing the collaboration we had.
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So that's really where it started and then COVID hit and everyone knows what
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was
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trying to run its head.
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And then, but we picked it up again and it's been in progress ever since then.
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The grant has now expired, but we have found that now it's so
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valuable to us that we have continued that grant.
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Everyone is working on it and it's something that we know we cannot do without
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now.
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Because this is what drives all of our cases.
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What we began was, is a robust collection of shell casing,
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followed by DNA testing of the shells themselves.
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And we were able to then collaborate and see that although we had
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an outsourced sized number of homicides and shootings that the vast majority of
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the shootings were really concentrated highly in areas and amongst people.
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And then group involved shootings.
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So we tried to break the larger number down to smaller parts to try to conquer
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the problem that we faced.
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And we have seen over the past three or four years that our numbers and
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homicides, shots fired, non-federal shootings have gone down.
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And we're moving in the right direction, although not yet at pre COVID numbers,
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where we want to be.
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But we're seeing that the collaboration by the men and
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the women that are on the street that pick up the shell casings.
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That those small things that they're able to do with the DNA,
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and particularly with the cooperation we've had with Bodey Labs and others.
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That it is really paid dividends for us.
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So some jurisdictions that may be listening, you can do this without a grant.
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Because you already have the people there working with your crime lab,
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working with the different departments, maybe even your university.
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We've found our university LSU and others to be really big drivers and
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grant writers.
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The National Guard is also part of this probation poll.
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If the agency that we have all the federal partners are all part of this.
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Also important to this is we not only do the research and look at the data,
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but we meet on a weekly basis to over what happened the week before and
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where our needs and who's our trigger pollers and what do we want to be.
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We also have data that's collected through the crime strategies unit,
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which is run through our office and National Guard,
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Conner Drug Intelligence Analysts.
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They're able to have everyone used to take data from all of the police reports.
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And they synthesize that and they put out these reports that are
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extremely detailed as to what's happening where Hornle Block,
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inner family, inner community, what time is it, would they.
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We do that not only with homicide, but non-fadals with shots fired.
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And we've expanded recently into fentanyl use and over those use.
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So it's a better use of limited resources that we now have.
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And the idea is to hopefully focus only on the trigger pollers,
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not throw a wide net and try to get everyone,
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but those that are causing trouble move on to the next one and select your
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cases.
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>> All right.
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So what are some of the strategies and techniques that have had the greatest
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impact on cases in your all's jurisdiction?
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>> Well, this is a collaborative effort.
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We always have worked with our partner, federal, state, local,
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our crime lab partners, and it takes all of us doing our own specific task,
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but collectively communicating and talking about that.
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It takes the work of our intelligence personnel.
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It takes on our coxivision has been a huge part of our
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efforts here when we're going after a mid and upper level drug dealers that are
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getting a lot of guns when we run those search warrants,
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our uniform patrol, our officers at the Batterton Police Department,
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on their traffic stops collecting guns.
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It was a whole approach using intelligence-driven information
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to identify the groups or gangs that are responsible for a lot of our shootings
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And so we can focus our attention on those individuals.
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When you look at them, historically, you know, you have them involved in other
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crimes
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also too.
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And say it's a non-fatal shooting, and it's just not a homicide,
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just because they made a bad shot.
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And so when we look at our numbers,
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Hiller mentioned our non-fatal shootings for our parishes a whole for this show
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we're down 22%, which is a significant amount that helps us, you know,
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fight our crime, focusing on the groups that are responsible for the shootings
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and collecting every shell casing and entering it within NIB and within 24 to
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48 hours,
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those NIBAs are uploaded to generate investigative leads to show how that
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shell casing is connected to other cases from crime scenes.
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And so that's been a huge success for us being able to do it in almost real
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time
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and putting forth our investigative efforts from both agencies to identify
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those.
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How is this gun connected from the Sheriff's Office shooting
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to the Batoners Police Department shooting?
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And what's the common denominator?
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And if you're not communicating and working every day with your partners,
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those opportunities are missed.
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And on flip side, they haven't had our Louisiana State Police crime lab,
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our crime lab partners helping them prioritize and say, you know,
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this one, they're all important cases.
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They don't understand that, okay?
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But we can't expedite every case.
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And so when we talk with Hiller, we're a suspect and he looks at, you know,
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another prosecution, they may have on this defendant and we say, okay,
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this is kind of our trial, this one needs to be a priority and get him off the
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streets
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and give Hiller a prosecutable case, you know, from not only the information we
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gather,
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but from the DNA result, from swabbing those cases and send them off the boaty
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to help us process.
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We look at jail bookings twice a day and we have an assistant DA that's
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familiar
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with the system in the process.
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She puts out a gun review on every gun case.
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And we're talking about 12 a day and also major crimes cases.
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And she does this thorough review through the form that we use and it tells us,
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as a DA immediately before the bond is set, this person has been involved with
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weapons
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before.
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And in this case, we need to follow up on NIBIN because we believe he's
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involved
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with other shootings.
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Also, this is the case where we need to make sure we swab the defendant,
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not only the defendant, say it's a car stop, but the other two that are in the
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car,
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it's someone claim ownership of the weapon.
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Do we ask them questions?
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Why would your DNA be on this gun?
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Have you touched it anytime recently?
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So all of those things are quickly assembled in a package before the defendant
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is able
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to bond out of jail and that we're able to hold those that are necessary to be
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held.
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To follow up on that, in addition to that scientific work, we also have a crime
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strategies
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unit that looks at social media because these people do speak and talk.
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And we also are able through a system that we employed with LSU, the university
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We have 10 senior criminology students.
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They also listen not only to the social media, but jail phone calls that oft
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entimes we may
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miss a gun or miss a Glock switch and they tell us in the jail phone call where
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to find
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it and then to share it from the police, follow up with further activities
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since then.
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That's what I love is that it's not just focused on the laboratory information
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that's
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provided.
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It's put together as a full story to build your case.
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So we've heard D.A. more speak to gun crimes and we've heard Major Todd Morris
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reference
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drug crimes and also homicides.
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Erica, are there other case types that you're focusing on in the state to fight
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crime?
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Yes.
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So we've had an uptick the last several years in homicides and sexual assault
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type cases.
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So that is really what we're focused on internally in the lab.
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A couple of years ago, Hillary reached out to us and asked us, "Hey, can we
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meet and talk
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about outsourcing some case work?"
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At that time, we were not in compliance with FBAQAS 17 standard, but we said, "
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What can
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we do to help?"
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And with this gun initiative, it has to do with CODIS eligibility, what type of
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cases
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we were able to ship off and send to BODI.
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So we had the guns had come to the lab already swabbed or either were swabbed
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at the laboratory.
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We also had a reference sample, some of which were processed.
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And so decisions were made with grant funding that was supplied to outsource
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those cases
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to BODI technology to be able to move the gun type cases forward in our process
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since
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we're really focusing on the homicides and rapes.
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So what people don't always realize is that forensic testing, the resources are
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limited.
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So how do you prioritize which samples you send to the lab or you move forward
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with?
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Is it in any way based on what's CODIS eligible and not CODIS eligible?
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To an extent, yes.
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We do have evidence receiving policy, independent on if it's a party one type
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of case, which
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is an offense against a person, typically a homicide or rape, and then a party
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two type
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case, which is like a burglary or theft or weapons.
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So we prioritize internally the homicides and the rapes, the oldest type of
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case to the
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newest is how we would typically triage case work.
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Obviously, we want to work the cases that are unknowns and if we have a profile
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that
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is eligible to CODIS to be able to put that into the database so we can get a
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hit so we
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can give that investigative lead to our local law enforcement agency so they
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can go and
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potentially get that person off the streets.
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So really, we're working more on a priority type of case request with the
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agencies due
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to our backlog.
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So if they have a case where there is a non-suspect because maybe it's a case
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that's going to
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court for prosecution, they need us to work something and we have known suspect
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reference
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samples, we would prioritize that kind of case.
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So Erin, we know that Bodie supports this program by directly working the cases
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What else is Bodie doing in the background to try to help support programs like
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this?
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Yeah, so Bodie is a service provider.
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We're here to serve our crime lab partners, our law enforcement partners.
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So whether that's taking backlog cases off the hands of the state labs that
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they can
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focus on the priorities like Erica just mentioned or R&D to advance
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technologies that will better
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meet the needs of what law enforcement needs right now, there's an increase in
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gun crimes
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nationwide and so we're now focusing a lot of our R&D efforts to improve the
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technology
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in that area and be able to apply it to projects such as this.
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So in 2021 we launched a new proprietary Bodie extraction method designed for
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improving
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success rates from shell casings and on this project now we are seeing great
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success rates
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that we're happy to see over 90% of the cases coming here from DA Moore and
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Major Morris
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are yielding DNA, they're proceeding on for DNA testing rather than stopping at
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quant
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and about 75% now are producing investigative information with comparable DNA
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profiles.
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So it sounds like that the approaches that you've chosen have been very
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effective but
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what challenges did you make implementing these transformative actions and how
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did you overcome
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those?
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One of the challenges was explaining to our uniform patrol deputies and
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emergency police
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officers you know the importance of locating every shell casing because we,
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because damn
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okay I've got one or two or I got three and we know that a shot spotter said we
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had 20
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rounds go off.
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Let's try to find all 20 rounds so we can make sure that we're swabbing each of
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those
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rounds for our best chance to get a profile that's going to help us and
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generate investigative
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lead and so we had to let them see the whole picture because the uniform patrol
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person
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or uniform patrol deputy you know they're going from one call to the next call
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and then
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now we have them just making sure that they spend a lot of time collecting all
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those shell
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casings because it's vital to us because the amount of investigative leads that
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generates
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just last year in 2023 all of our nybin entries generated 148 investigative
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leads.
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Okay that's a lot of investigative leads with those shell casings are connected
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to another
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shooting and so we've seen great results from that by focusing and collecting
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every shell
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casing we have one person at the office that runs every ATF trest on every gun
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to make
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sure that's done immediately all the nybin entries test fires are done within
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48 hours
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and so that's crucial to help us generate that lead as quickly as we can and it
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's once
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again it's a approach that takes all of our partners.
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Through the cooperation with nybin and DNA testing we were able to solve last
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year four
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murders that we have never had any understanding that this person was involved
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in the shooting
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and it's because of the men and women on the street that maybe just found this
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one person
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in a traffic accident with a weapon and they seized the weapon for whatever
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reason we took
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that weapon and we traced it we nybin did we shot it and lo and behold that
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shell case
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came back to a murder and that would never have been done because that's a
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routine gun
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that is not involved with a felon it's a regular person but lo and behold he's
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a killer
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and you have all of the evidence there but for all of this together in any of
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the DNA
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on top is huge and what body is done with the new shell case testing for us has
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been
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I learned about it from Tabitha and we had two particular cases that we wanted
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to have
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this done for us and they're very important and it's worth it on those cases to
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seize
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those shells and send them to get the best chance you can.
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I think your rate is around 70% whereas regular work in the lab may not be that
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high and your
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extraction method is great and that was has solved one serial murder killer for
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us which
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was a head our city on edge but for that technology.
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That's a great segue into the next question so we know that any type of
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technology to
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implement it is expensive so how did you obtain funding to implement a lot of
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these programs?
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Well we've forced them we had some the city parish had some funds that we
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received from
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the covid that we got to help offset all the struggles that our parishes and
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our counties
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and our states were different having them covid and so the mayor's office set
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aside
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you know a certain amount of those dollars to help expedite the case because
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they saw
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the benefit and the need also to resist a community effort as in the community
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issue
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that we're trying to deal with and so to be able to take some of those funds
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that we
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were given from the federal government and be able to prioritize that we're
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going to
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set aside two hundred fifty thousand dollars for testing expedited testing with
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boating
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and focusing on gun crimes because the gun crimes and our non-faders are
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drivers.
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So Erin D.A. Moore spoke to the need for faster turnaround times and quicker
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processing.
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How has boating made any changes to support programs like this that are
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requesting faster
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turnaround times in the reporting and their processing?
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Yeah, I think that's a really important point and as D.A. Moore said as they
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see more success
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there's more demand the more success we see there is more demand and there's an
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expectation
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of a faster turnaround time in order for this to be effective.
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So that's something that we've been focusing on in increasing our capacity.
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So kind of twofold you mentioned analyst positions and there's a lot of
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training that goes into
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that so we've been focused on adding more analysts and more capacity to our lab
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and also
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working on our process improvements to make this a higher throughput process.
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As we brought this online it was a very specialized technology it's a manual
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tedious process
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to get these kinds of success rates and now we're focused on trying to make
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this a higher
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throughput process a more affordable process with a quick turnaround time so
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that we can
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expand this testing and still meet the turnaround time expectations.
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Also think that as a nation and then as a particular city and state I'm not
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sure that
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we've yet made a priority public safety.
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So things are not like they used to be where you could pay a load of money for
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Dustin.
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There was a fingerprint when D.A. was not around.
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It was easy, it was simple.
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Now things have become more complicated and not only in the D.A. realm or the
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shell casing
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realm but cell phone download, body camera, all of this has increased the
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expense for
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us to sufficiently arrest and prosecute people that are causing harm to the
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community and
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less than until we're able to raise the funds or seek public safety first.
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Either as your city or your state or the United States to make it a political
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priority we're
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going to be in this situation it's not going to get any better.
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So I think we have to reprioritize what we're thinking.
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It's just like the fentanyl increase that we're seeing our fentanyl deaths
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triple our gun
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charges.
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Has it been made a public priority or a public health issue?
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It's sort of one line with that.
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So I think the more you pay attention to an issue particularly DNA and cell
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phones and
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others like this it's going to continue to be an issue and we have to when we
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talk about
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funding everyone needs money for anything that there is but I think this should
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be a
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priority.
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I don't know if any of the cases I have closed that have been involved in this
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collaboration
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but is there any one particular case that sticks out that's been a success
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through this
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program?
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I know you said that through the guns you've it's led you to four homicide
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suspects.
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Those homicides were last year so we're still waiting for that to go through
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the pipeline
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but just the regular gun cases that we prioritized to send to body it's
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information that we would
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not have had before that we couldn't move forward one way or the other and when
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the
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DNA came back in very few cases that was there was nothing that could be done.
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Those cases were resolved in the appropriate manner based on the other evidence
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Those they came back with DNA that's this defendant's DNA when he said I've
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never touched
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the gun that's a whole different case he pleads guilty or goes to trial and
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faces the consequence.
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So just having the information.
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Look it also helps a defendant if it's not his DNA it's not his DNA and our job
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is to
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be fair to everyone and so it is not only affects law enforcement and the
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public and
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prosecutors but defense lawyers and community in general so I think it's just
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necessary
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both ways.
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Okay so what's next for the state of Louisiana and East Baton Rouge Parish?
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What further advancements technologies are you looking at?
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I know you mentioned fentanyl is a focus area is there anything else?
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We are we are because of the number of gun crimes we are trying to open a gun
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court as
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I mentioned and so I think that's our next step how can we fund that program
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from the
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beginning how can we make sure that we have DNA testing cell phone downloads to
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support
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conviction I mean the turnaround time is going to have to be quick and it's
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going to be
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difficult on top of the burden that we already have but I think people are
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really getting
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tired of the violence and the gun violence and we see it all over the place and
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it's
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a next step that we're going to take and hopefully with the partnerships that
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we have here we'll
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expand and it's going to all be about data and the numbers that we see or don't
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see and then look at the recidivism rate who's coming back after being treated or
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being
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convicted will be a telltale sign.
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So one of the things at the crime lab that we've been dealing with is sexual
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assault
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kits and how can we improve and make that process even more efficient so right
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now we
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have our serologists or our screeners that screen them and they will actually
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take the
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cases into the lab to extract them there's been a movement of kind of going
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away from
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presumptive testing and testing all the items on the front end and making
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determinations
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at quant.
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So our current captain at the crime lab right now we just had a collaborative
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group effort
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of all of the directors of all the crime laboratories in Louisiana come
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together to talk about
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how are they processing sexual assault kits what are the differences and how we
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're handling
21:20
that from crime lab to crime lab and how can we maybe come together and do it
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more of the
21:25
same and talk about the methods that were having in place at our laboratories
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to be
21:30
more efficient.
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Also there's a sexual assault kit tracking program and that's new to our state
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with the
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current legislation that just passed last year.
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The other new technologies that are on the horizon is rapid DNA with crime
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scene and I
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know that Major Morris can speak more to the booking rapid.
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Yeah, no I've been real excited about rapid DNA and we implemented the first
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case in the
21:52
country at rapid DNA at the time of booking and collecting that and I've been
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working
21:55
with the state police crime lab on an investigative lead project with involving
21:59
rapid DNA and
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I just really think that's going to help benefit us in certain cases to be able
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to get generator
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profile for rapid DNA within 90 minutes to help generate investigative lead and
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that is
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that it's all about no but I think it's another tool with technology that we
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got to utilize
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though for certain cases they'll help us generate that lead within 90 minutes
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to solve that
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crime quicker and that's what it's all about because we know if we identify
22:21
that individual
22:22
we can make a good case for a killer he's going to be able to prosecute that
22:27
case, get
22:27
an invasion, we get that individual off the street much quicker and we talk
22:31
about metrics
22:31
and data driven and that's going to save money we look at what's always about
22:35
funding to
22:36
talk about funding and the quicker we can identify suspect get that individual
22:40
off the
22:40
streets it saves money from the aspect from the uniform patrol guide to a
22:44
victim of the
22:44
crime to the prosecution time to the amount of time wearing tear on a vehicle
22:49
dispatch
22:50
time at the crime lab I mean you look at all the totality that and we look at
22:54
call saving
22:55
measures in the end and we think rapid to be able to help with that and just
23:00
identify
23:01
that individual much more quickly. Do you think that it will reduce the number
23:05
of samples that you'll have to send for the more traditional processing? Well
23:10
we've discussed
23:11
that we're still going to collect two swabs okay but the key is the time
23:15
involved, you
23:16
know, Hiller needs to you know within maybe six months for a trial okay if we
23:21
use it
23:21
as an investigative lead within 90 minutes or that day that we're working a
23:25
major crime
23:26
to lead us to that individual give them off the street and the crime lab is not
23:29
pressured
23:30
hey I'm not calling Erica hey I really need this ASAP now now we have several
23:34
months to get it
23:35
done in process because we had the rapid hit first it generated investigative
23:38
lead and now the
23:39
traditional DNA can still be processed but there's not the pressure from the
23:43
crime lab thing oh my
23:44
gosh now I've got to put this in line Todd just asked me for another one now he
23:47
wants this one
23:48
process you know so I think it's going to benefit uh collectively as a whole
23:52
from that. So I think
23:53
that uh uh so I think it allows him probable cause right for the restaurant
23:57
that we base
23:58
us for an arrest to put someone in jail and then I knew now I have one that is
24:03
viable that I can
24:03
ask the crime lab for beyond the reason without I need your testing and so I
24:08
think it's going to
24:08
narrow the focus down on what we want and what we need. Right and for though
24:12
the three of us that
24:14
have worked in a laboratory although prioritization is definitely necessary for
24:18
public safety at this
24:20
point in time because we haven't had the access to 90 minutes in rapid
24:24
technology. We do know that
24:26
prioritizing and pulling one case out it does impact your efficiency so it will
24:33
help and assist in
24:34
that way as well do you think? Yeah I do think that whenever you have a case
24:39
that needs a prior
24:40
new prioritized um it's up to the supervisors they triage it so who's going in
24:44
our case work
24:45
cycle appropriately and um so you're taking one from the back and putting it to
24:49
the front but
24:49
it's all about communication and keeping it organized um if you're keep doing
24:53
these one offs on the
24:54
side it can kind of disrupt the process so as long as we keep the lines of
24:57
communication open we're
24:59
able to keep it kind of organized within our laboratory process and move it
25:03
right along
25:03
with the rest of the train we can hopefully get results in a more timely
25:07
fashion. Aaron you
25:09
mentioned bode extraction which is the process that bode uses on fired show cas
25:13
ings and it also
25:14
uses it on rootless hairs could you tell us a little bit more about that
25:18
process and what changes
25:19
were made to increase the success on these sample types? Sure yeah we brought
25:24
this procedure outline
25:25
in 2021 but it wasn't a completely new procedure a lot of the research that
25:30
went into it was actually
25:32
first used on bode's proprietary bone extraction that we've been using since
25:37
our testing on the
25:38
world trade center and really this extraction method focuses on improved
25:43
recovery of the more
25:45
degraded shorter fragment DNA so we recover more of that that in in prior
25:49
methods would have been
25:51
washed away and that's coupled on the spent shell casing specifically it's
25:55
coupled with a
25:55
specialized sampling method that goes into the extraction so we're using the
26:00
ATF method which
26:01
is the rinse and swab method and that's where the entire shell casing is rinsed
26:05
with a buffer
26:06
that binds the metal ions that would normally degrade the DNA further so by
26:11
binding those it
26:12
increases our our recovery it reduces the further degradation and inhibition in
26:17
the process so we
26:18
use this rinse and swab method where the entire rinse and then a swab of the
26:22
casing is then put
26:23
into our bode extraction and like I said in that method we're able to recover
26:28
more of the degraded
26:29
DNA fragments so Erin with these changes in the process how has it impacted the
26:35
success rate on
26:36
these sample types? Yeah that's a great question we've seen a really increased
26:40
success rate since
26:41
going online with this method and before we had this method online we weren't
26:45
often recommending
26:46
that this sample type even be tested you know just knowing that the likelihood
26:50
of success was
26:51
quite low but our validation showed that we're getting 10 times the DNA
26:55
recovery now with this
26:56
method and what we've seen since being online with this procedure in real cas
27:00
ework for the past
27:01
couple of years is that we're getting codis eligible profiles from about 50
27:05
percent of the cases
27:06
or comparable DNA profiles and when more samples can be submitted it really
27:11
increases the chance
27:12
of success on cases that have had at least five shell casings submitted our
27:18
success rate of obtaining
27:20
a codis eligible profile has been about 90 percent. So Erica we know that codis
27:26
eligible profiles
27:28
there is no need for a suspect standard or a person of interest standard for
27:32
comparison.
27:33
Does the collaboration work to help get you those persons of interest reference
27:39
DNA standards
27:40
to compare to those cases that are not eligible for codis? Yes absolutely
27:46
especially with the
27:47
gun initiative and the program that we did with the outsourcing of the cases
27:50
that Hiller mentioned
27:51
earlier when it comes to codis eligibility there are certain criteria that have
27:57
to be met for profiles
27:59
obtained from a weapon or a firearm the eligibility is critical and so you can
28:04
't always put those
28:05
profiles after you swab a gun into codis. So if you have a known suspect and
28:08
submitting those
28:09
reference samples to the laboratory or to the outsource lab we're able to
28:13
obtain a profile from the
28:15
gun or the cartridge cases and then you have the reference swabs and then you
28:18
can make that comparison
28:19
and they're either included or excluded depending on the yield and the results
28:23
of the DNA testing.
28:26
One thing I'd like to explain to you is it's very important about the crime
28:28
strategy in it
28:29
report that Sonia sends out she's phenomenal and she usually lives in National
28:33
Guard
28:33
personnel and they do a great job but we take that report and we make sure it
28:38
goes to our
28:38
uniform patrol. Okay we just don't keep it from the administration standpoint
28:41
or for our captain
28:42
standpoint it goes to every deputy because we want them to look at that scene
28:45
in their specific
28:46
areas at the Pacific Times what's taking place and allow them to because you
28:50
won't buy in from
28:51
everybody in your agency and they want to feel a part of something okay. You
28:55
know the minister
28:55
I'll just go to this area because we said so that's not the way it works you
28:58
know this is a team
28:59
approach and it's important for us to disseminate that out to everybody. You
29:03
have to say you can
29:03
look at themselves they look at the graphs you look at the charts they look at
29:06
the hot spots
29:07
and that is a vital for them to to embrace their areas where they know these
29:10
individuals too because
29:11
they know the areas where they're having these shots fired at and so you get
29:15
them to buy into
29:16
focus their attention that more so than just being directed there by their
29:19
captain of their
29:20
lieutenant hey we're going to focus here today and get the initiatives from
29:23
them themselves and
29:24
it's really important to do that. And there's always a data driven police
29:28
officer or deputy
29:29
per squad that's the one that you really want to get it to and then when he
29:33
does something really
29:34
good then the others catch on but I think what we've also learned from that is
29:39
that we do a really
29:40
bad job of telling officers because of the business wherein they did a great
29:45
job and hey we appreciate
29:46
it. So we're now trying to follow up with emails to the individual officers
29:50
that hey that one gun
29:52
that you took off that non-felling person we shouted that shell case came back
29:56
to this you should be
29:57
proud that you did your job and we send that along to the chief as well so that
30:01
person has a
30:02
pick me up and says I want to go get it and do even more because it is a tough
30:07
business that
30:08
we're in now and given getting that recognition is very helpful. It helps to
30:12
motivate them that
30:14
they're impacting beyond that one case that they're impacting the entire
30:17
mission.
30:18
100% correct and it's really about buy-in okay and they see the results of them
30:23
swabbing that
30:23
they see the results of just collecting that gun from a traffic stop okay and
30:26
then we give them the
30:28
NIBIN report and to show them hey this is going to connect it to one two three
30:32
four cases just by you
30:33
initiating a traffic stop whatever probable cause led to that and allowed them
30:37
to be able to seize
30:38
that appropriately and then us to be able to shoot it fire put it in a NIBIN
30:41
and they see those
30:42
results you know and it's important that they know that right you know on the
30:45
back end.
30:46
So we've talked about looking at other agencies and the intelligence program
30:52
that they had set up
30:53
and then the availability of funding that it motivated the collaboration but
30:57
was there a particular
30:58
case that maybe sparked you to want to come together and start addressing
31:02
crimes this way?
31:03
Yes so going back to visiting Denver and the work that they were doing with
31:09
shell casing and
31:10
the research that was out there at the time wasn't really promising for the
31:15
yield but they were
31:17
excited about it and we were mindful of that and then a recall Baton Rouge had
31:24
a serial killer
31:25
prior to the the COVID outbreak and there were homeless people that were being
31:31
killed and I think
31:31
the Baton Rouge police had three murders and the sheriff's office had one all
31:36
within two weeks
31:37
and you can imagine and these were multiple shell cages that are used at these
31:42
different crime
31:42
scenes you can imagine Baton Rouge is on alert also particularly the African
31:47
American community
31:48
because they were all black victims and we had no idea at the time who was
31:54
doing this so we were
31:55
really on high alert. I recall one murder that occurred right outside of the
32:00
LSU campus
32:01
where person was gunned down with multiple shell casings and there was this one
32:06
technician one
32:07
the crime scene detective that was working the case and I had prior life had
32:13
been a crime scene
32:15
investigator and she was using one swab to swab multiple casings that were in
32:20
different
32:20
fields of one of shell casings and I asked her you know why were you doing this
32:25
she had read the
32:26
same articles and said I think I have a better chance of receiving a DNA sample
32:31
if I do it this way
32:33
so we said okay and then eventually that gets sent to the crime lab and the
32:38
crime lab
32:38
learnable comes off with a DNA profile we've never had that before and here we
32:42
have a DNA
32:43
profile and then right after that we checked the cameras around LSU and it led
32:48
us to a car
32:48
then that individual did something with that car that was captured on video we
32:53
ran the DNA got his
32:54
sample he had a worn out for him we took a sample of his DNA because of the
32:59
word he had not for a
33:00
murder but for another matter that was minor then matching the two up to his
33:05
DNA and you have a
33:06
serial killer so that's one at that point we said this is really great
33:12
technology but again the yield
33:14
is very low and then fast forward to meeting you and when you came to Baton
33:18
Rouge and told us
33:19
about the new extraction method a few years ago we're really excited because we
33:24
had two cases at
33:25
the time that were pending that were horrendous cases where the victim are
33:30
defended really didn't
33:31
know each other it's a four-year-old on a college co-ed killed at different
33:35
times and that's when it
33:37
really let us know that hey we have a partner that we can use that the yield
33:41
could be 70 to 90 percent
33:43
if we're able to collect it correctly so we quickly then disseminated that
33:47
information to the
33:48
sheriff and the Baton Rouge police that hey on certain cases we may want to
33:53
keep shell casings aside collect them separately on the your direction send them to
33:59
the lab and we
34:00
may get a much better result now although a DNA on a shell case of won't say
34:04
that that person
34:05
pulled the trigger it's an investigative lead it's credible information and
34:10
someone has to answer
34:11
questions if you're able to run them in codis and and get their their DNA so
34:16
from that point on we
34:18
have really been interested in this process and unfortunately we would love to
34:23
send every shell
34:24
casing here in a boatie to do that but can't at this time hopefully that will
34:28
get
34:29
become easier and more cost effective but it is valuable for us in particular
34:35
cases
34:35
yeah so we don't have a technology online yet at our laboratory due to the
34:41
backlog and trying to
34:42
hire the personnel and and train them to be able to do the basic DNA case work
34:47
but with
34:47
Hiller's gun initiative what we've been able to do is when guns are swabbed we
34:52
had those swabs
34:53
from weapons themselves we've already had the reference samples in house and
34:57
with this initiative
34:58
and collaborative effort we've come together to talk about what cases can we
35:01
send for his agency
35:03
along with east Baton Rouge Sheriff's office and so we came together as a group
35:06
to be able to outsource
35:08
those cases of swaps from guns and if we had any cases in the meantime the
35:12
cartridge cases was also
35:14
then sent to boatie technology yeah and that was great to have your site visit
35:18
and build that
35:19
relationship further with your lab because then that's now allowed us to expand
35:23
and be able to take
35:24
more cases as as you need we said it's all about the collaboration so it's how
35:29
it started and now
35:30
it's just the beginning I'm sure
35:39
you
35:41
(buzzing)