New York City Solving Cold Cases with DNA

The Mayors Office of the Criminal Justice Coordinator (CJC) in partnership with the Police Department (NYPD), the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) and the District Attorneys Offices of Bronx, New York, Richmond and Queens Counties is requesting $796,829 in grant funds. These funds will support selection and analysis of cold cases across six New York City law enforcement agencies. The NYPD Cold Case Squad (CCS) and the District Attorneys' Offices will identify, review, and prioritize cold case files for their potential to yield evidence for DNA analysis. These cases will be forwarded through a centralized administrative protocol to the NYPD Property Clerk or OCME for evidence retrieval. Any evidence found by the Property Clerk will be logged out to the appropriate county DA or the Cold Case Squad. OCME will perform DNA analysis on any potentially probative evidence. Grant funds will pay for OCME overtime and supplies dedicated to DNA analysis, evidence handling and loading DNA profiles into the CODIS database, in addition to NYPD and DA overtime expended on case review and evidence retrieval. OCME will refer successful DNA matches to the agency that originated the request. NYPD and the county DAs will handle investigation and prosecution of successfully matched cases with non-grant funded personnel.
CJC will be responsible for oversight, reporting requirements, and fiscal monitoring. This important work was started under the 2009 NIJ Cold Case award. Although successes have been achieved, a number of improvements will be instituted using this funding including standardizing case selection and prioritization, involving the NYPD Property Clerk Division to improve for evidence retrieval, and streamlining interagency coordination.
ca/ncf