SEATTLE _ The state of Washington has collected blood from 35,000 sex offenders and violent criminals over the past decade, hoping to build a crime-solving DNA database.

But blood samples from most of the criminals have made it no farther than a freezer in a downtown Seattle office building.

A backlog of 22,627 samples is stored in a state crime laboratory, awaiting DNA extraction and computer input.

The backlog -- similar to those in other states -- was a problem that Spokane detectives encountered en route to catching a serial killer this year.

"We had a 40 percent error rate -- potential suspects that weren't sampled or whose blood wasn't in the database, most likely part of the backlog," said Sgt. Cal Walker, supervisor of the serial killer task force.

Task force detectives also found "inaccuracies and inadequacies" with another state computer system intended to track convicted felons and show whether their DNA samples have been taken, Walker said.

The blood samples from known felons can't be used to solve crimes until their unique DNA molecules are analyzed, given specific number codes and entered into a computer network known as CODIS.

The state's DNA database is hooked to a national DNA database, operated by the FBI. It now has 450,000 entries.

The samples of only 12,000 felons are in the state's database under the most modern "STR" method of mapping DNA. The state faces reprocessing 15,000 blood samples analyzed under older DNA processing technology known as RFLP.

There's more work than technicians and scientists available to perform the complicated tests and data entry, lab supervisors say.

Felon samples, collected by the Department of Corrections, are coming in at the rate of 250 to 350 a month, said Donald MacLaren, who supervises the patrol's DNA lab in Seattle.

The backlog began growing almost immediately after the Legislature passed a law in 1990 requiring sex offenders to submit blood samples. Violent criminals and juveniles were added a few years ago, increasing the workload.

The law also was expanded to include 1,500 felons still in prison for sex crimes committed before 1990. Their blood samples didn't arrive at the state lab until September.

"We didn't have the people here at the lab to do the DNA typing, to do the work and keep up with it," MacLaren said of the backlog.

The blood samples are converted to droplet cards, which are permanently stored in the crime lab's freezer. With a tiny punch from one of the dried blood droplets, the felon's DNA is identified and put into the computer database.

State regulations and other red tape prevent the labs from routinely sending the felon samples to a private lab. Experts say private labs can process felons' blood samples and develop DNA computer data quicker and cheaper.

The Washington State Patrol just got a $1.3 million federal grant to begin reducing the backlog. The National Institute of Justice grant specifies the state must use a private contractor. The bid was awarded to Reliagene Inc., of New Orleans.

"We're probably at the point where we can keep up, I hope, once the backlog is cleaned up," MacLaren said.

Rep. Ida Ballasiotes, co-chairwoman of the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee, said she is concerned about the backlog.

"If you're so darned behind, what's the point?" the Mercer Island Republican said last week.

Ballasiotes said she's convinced the state's DNA database can become an "incredible tool" in the fight against crime.

"It's critical that we get this system operating in the most efficient manner possible," she said.

Washington isn't the only state facing a huge backlog of blood samples awaiting DNA identification.

Nationally, there are 1 million felon blood samples awaiting DNA extraction, and another 500,000 criminals -- in and out of prison -- whose blood hasn't been collected.

A national DNA expert, Paul Ferrara of Virginia's Division of Forensic Science, said backlogs in Washington state and elsewhere are preventing crimes from being solved.

For every felon's sample that isn't in the database, the chances are reduced for identifying a suspect from a crime-scene DNA sample, he said.

Virginia, which has 200,000 DNA samples in its database, takes blood from every felon, not just those convicted of sex crimes or crimes of violence.

"We know anecdotally and intuitively that people are becoming crime victims because of these backlogs," Ferrara said last week.

In Virginia, the backlog prevented state crime lab investigators from quickly getting to a DNA sample submitted from a rape victim in 1998.

The sample eventually was matched to the unique DNA "molecular fingerprint" from a known felon. But that "hit" didn't occur before the rapist attacked again and killed a woman, Ferrara said.

If the sample had been matched shortly after it came in the lab door, Ferrara said, detectives could have moved quickly to arrest the suspect, and may have prevented the murder.

Earlier this month, Congress passed legislation authorizing $170 million to help states clear the backlogs.

In Great Britain, where all felons submit DNA samples, a national database has 1 million entries. Investigators use DNA computer comparisons to make hundreds of suspect identifications each week, Ferrara said.

Idaho started collecting DNA samples from sex offenders and violent criminals Nov. 27, and already has 225 samples.

Instead of blood draws, Idaho officials use mouth swabs to collect saliva for DNA samples. They are less intrusive, but saliva is harder to

Spokesman Review

-- Anonymous, December 17, 2000