New Mexico: Forensic DNA Laboratory Improvement Program; Final Report

• NCJ Number: 173091
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 4 pages
• Grant Number(s): 96-IJ-CX-0039
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored

Annotation

The goals of the Fast Track program of The Albuquerque Police Department are to collect primary body evidence in criminal sexual penetration cases and to conduct subsequent rapid screening and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) DNA analysis of this evidence, as well as prepare for a State CODIS-type system for the collection and comparing of crime-scene (body) evidence to DNA profiled convicted offenders.

Abstract

Prototype Fast Track collection kits were developed and used for testing by the Albuquerque Police Department Criminalistics Laboratory during the Fall of 1997. Based on this testing, numerous changes have been made to the original kit design and instructions. In September 1997 the kit design was finalized, and components of the kits were acquired and subsequently assembled in-house. Fast Track kit analysis by traditional serological screenings are now being routinely performed by the police department. STR DNA analysis is currently on hold, pending the completion of equipment and chemistry system validations on the Perkin Elmer (PE) 310 Genetic Analyzer. The unexpected designation of 13 STR core loci has caused an interruption in the final validations of the complete system. All equipment and computers are now in place, and formal in-house training on the PE 310 Genetic Analyzer was provided in late April 1998.