This four-part panel discussion series will elucidate the current landscape of policies and procedures addressing familial DNA searching. These discussions will be used to generate a report designed to educate legal professionals, policy makers, law enforcement and forensic laboratory practitioners of state and local agencies about the current issues, approaches and positions involved with familial DNA searches as they apply to criminal investigations. As the decision to employ and how to employ familial DNA searching varies from state to state, we will discuss the various policies and practices associated with familial DNA searches including technical considerations, legal challenges, comparison with other types of DNA searches and implementation ramifications.
In this particular session, the discussion topics will focus around current technical protocols including software considerations, candidate thresholds derived by likelihood ratio and allele counting, as well as addressing the number of candidates and subsequent analysis to reduce the number of potential candidates including the role of Y STR and mtDNA analysis.