February 2, 2001

NATIONAL DNA DATA BANK ALREADY LINKING CRIME SCENES AND OFFENDERS, SAYS FEDERAL SOLICITOR GENERAL LAWRENCE MACAULAY

 

OTTAWA - The National DNA data bank is already proving to be an extremely valuable public safety tool, linking several crime scenes and convicted offenders in its first seven months of operation, says federal Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay.

"Since I officially opened the DNA Data Bank on June 30, 2000, there have been 11 matches using DNA to link crime scenes to each other or to convicted offenders. These matches so early in the process are unprecedented," said Mr. MacAulay.

"Clearly, the national DNA data bank is already showing tremendous promise in making our communities safer and more secure," said Mr. MacAulay."In its short history, the data bank has proven to be of invaluable assistance in active law enforcement investigations."

Of the 11 matches:

Dr. Ron Fourney, Officer-in-Charge of the national DNA data bank said, "It gives us great satisfaction to know that our work is helping front-line police investigators. The data bank is already one of the key tools that we can offer justice and the investigation of crime in Canada."

There are already 1,183 crime scene samples and 2,782 convicted offender samples in the data bank.

Canada is among a handful of countries to have such a data bank in place. The national DNA data bank is located at RCMP Headquarters in Ottawa. It includes a crime scene index, containing DNA profiles of DNA samples from unsolved crime scenes, and a convicted offenders index, containing DNA profiles from young offenders as well as adult civilian and military offenders who are convicted of serious offences.

The national DNA data bank is part of the RCMP's National Police Services, which also includes the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada, Forensic Laboratory Services, the Canadian Police College, and Identification Services.

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