FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – No crook should ever slip through the cracks again at the Flagler County jail.
Too often in the criminal justice system, inmates booked into jail with hidden violent pasts are released on bond before judges even know about the inmates’ criminal history.
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But the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, expects that will never happen again because detention deputies can now check state and federal DNA databases in just an hour and a half instead of waiting months for a DNA profile to be generated and compared.
Flagler County is the only Central Florida county to receive a Rapid DNA instrument through a $250,000 Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) grant.
Once Deputy Sara Radford determines a new inmate meets the criteria for a DNA profile – accused of a felony and does not have his or her DNA on file – she swabs the inside of the inmate’s cheek to obtain a sample.
The sample is then inserted into the Rapid DNA instrument which immediately begins to create a DNA profile. Within 90 minutes, that profile is uploaded to Florida and the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) Unit and the FBI’s DNA Index of Special Concern (DISC).
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“The DISC contains complete crime scene profiles from unsolved homicides, sexual assaults, kidnappings, and terrorism incidents,” according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. “DISC profiles can be searched in almost real time during the booking process to determine if the offenders DNA was left at an unsolved crime scene anywhere in the country.”
Commander Louis Miceli said the near-instant database cross-referencing will alert the jail if an inmate is wanted in Flagler County or anywhere in the country for a recent crime or an unsolved cold case.
“And that takes a lot of the time element out of it,” Miceli said. “Because normally we’d have to submit the sample to the FDLE lab, the state lab, their scientists. And we know the FDLE has been bogged down with DNA samples, it would take months probably. Anywhere from weeks to months depending on their backlog.”
Miceli said by the time a new inmate sees a jail judge for the first (court) appearance, the judge should know if the inmate is linked to previous violent crime.
“Because before they could have bonded out if it was a bondable charge,” Miceli said. “By the time we got their DNA back from the FDLE, which is months, they’re long gone committing another crime.”
As a backup, Dep. Radford takes a second DNA sample from a new inmate and sends that physical sample to the FDLE lab for testing to ensure a match with the Rapid DNA profile. The FDLE will then keep that second physical sample on file.
Miceli said the jail has used the Rapid DNA instrument to create more than 100 DNA profiles for inmates over the past six months. So far, there have been no database hits.
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