By Jennifer BriceFirst Coast NewsJACKSONVILLE, FL -- Florida's Department of Law Enforcement will be able to use federal money to send DNA evidence to private labs for testing -- to help solve cases quicker.The Jacksonville FDLE handles 1,200 new service requests each year causing a backlog, according to FDLE's Lab Analyst Supervisor Marci Scott. "It is a struggle to keep on top of things."The federal grant allows FDLE to outsource the cases that have no suspects. Three hundred have been sent out. 25 returned with DNA matches. "It's a very good percentage," says Scott. The matches come from a statewide DNA database of felons.A recent match led police to the arrest of a Jacksonville sex offender. 47-year-old Theodore Patrick White was arrested on charges of sexual battery. He is charged with raping a woman in 2001. White's DNA was in the statewide database because he was convicted of sexual battery in 1985.
FDLE Outsourcing Crime Cases
By Jennifer BriceJACKSONVILLE, FL -- Florida's Department of Law Enforcement will be able to use federal money to send DNA evidence to private labs for testing -- to help solve cases quicker.
