Friday September 3, 2010

ATLANTA (AP) -- The Georgia Bureau of Investigation's DNA
database has reached more than 2,000 hits to unsolved cases.

GBI Director Vernon Keenan says the database's rapid increase
"proves the value of DNA to law enforcement in solving violent
crimes that otherwise may have gone unsolved."

It took 10 years for the database to reach 1,000 hits in August
2008. It took only two more years for that number to double.

The GBI began DNA testing in 1991 and implemented the database
in 1998. At the time, only those convicted and incarcerated for sex
offenses were included.

Lawmakers expanded the database in 2000 to include all
incarcerated convicted felons. It was changed again in 2007 to
include those on probation for certain violent felonies.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)