Familial DNA and the Golden State Killer

Familial DNA. It’s been called the single greatest advancement in criminal investigation since fingerprint analysis.

Right now there are 100,000 cold case homicides and 650,000 cold case sexual assaults in the United States with suspect DNA samples in evidence. Familial DNA is being used to identify the suspects and solve these cases everyday, but at what cost? As law enforcement taps into commercial DNA databases, mining for partial DNA matches belonging to relatives of unidentified suspects, privacy rights and ethics become blurred.

On this weeks’ episode, Bill Bodner and The Chief discuss this emerging technique, where the guardrails should be and where likely overreaches have already occurred.

Do the ends justify the means?

Watch this episode and give us your thoughts!