ESR Forensic DNA team
Forensic DNA services at ESR are provided by three sub-teams that together form the ESR Forensic DNA team. Each of these sub-teams has its own dedicated staff and specialises in a different area of forensic DNA analysis. All three sub-teams are based at the ESR laboratories in Auckland, where a state-of-the-art forensic DNA facility is situated.
Forensic DNA laboratory
This building was completed in 2002 and has been specially designed for forensic DNA work. It contains many features which ensure that ESR produces the best-quality DNA work possible. These features include:
- highly filtered and regulated air flow which minimises sample contamination by ensuring that air is clean and is not passed from room to room within the building;
- restricted access security which ensures that only specially cleared staff have access to samples; and
- separate laboratories for analysis of different sample types, further ensuring that there is no chance of cross-contamination between samples.
Sample tracking
All DNA samples at ESR are given a unique barcode and tracked using ESRLab and FEDDS, ESR's specially developed in-house software that allows samples to be easily monitored at each stage of the forensic DNA process. These programs work to prevent errors from occurring by electronically verifying samples at each step and record a full audit trail that can be produced in court to demonstrate that samples have been properly handled.
The Priority Casework Team
The Priority Casework Team (PCT) at ESR specialises in DNA cases where a suspect has been identified and has provided a reference DNA sample from which a profile is obtained for comparison against crime samples. These cases often have a high public profile and can involve homicides or sexual assaults. As a result, PCT scientists are often required to provide expert evidence in court on the analyses that they have performed and the results that they have obtained.
The Crime Sample Database Unit
The Crime Sample Database Unit (CSDU) specialises in volume crime cases, often burglaries, where no specific suspect has been identified. The CSDU often work on cases where there are no leads for the police other than a small amount of biological material that has been left at the crime scene. From these samples, the CSDU maintain a large database of unknown DNA profiles that have originated from unsolved crimes. This database is called the Crime Sample Database (CSD) and it is periodically matched against itself, which often reveals links between crimes that had been previously thought to be unrelated, and against the National DNA Database (NDD), which is a large database of known DNA profiles maintained by the third forensic DNA team at ESR.
The National DNA Database team
The National DNA Database (NDD) is a large database that contains DNA profiles from known individuals. At December it contained more than 100,000 DNA profiles. The NDD team at ESR is responsible for producing DNA profiles for inclusion on the NDD and for ensuring that the Database is maintained according to the legislation in the Criminal Investigation (Bodily Samples), or CI(BS), Act 2003. The New Zealand Police provide the samples from individuals for profiles which are submitted to the NDD. These samples come from people who have been convicted of crimes that are listed in the CI(BS) Act, from those who are compelled to give a sample under the Act, and from those who volunteer to go on the Database. The NDD is currently growing at a rate of about 1,000 profiles per month, and matching between the CSD and NDD results in about 90 previously unknown links between individuals and crimes per month.
The NDD and the CSD are collectively called the New Zealand DNA Databank, and are discussed further in that section.