A new forensics lab in Boulder is increasing the focus statewide on solving property crimes.

So if your home is burglarized or your car is broken into, police might bring a portable lab kit to the scene and swab for DNA.

The long-planned lab began operating in October through a partnership between the Boulder Police Department and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and allows local law enforcement agencies to send evidence that can be compared to federal databases.

DNA evidence was critical in identifying a 20-year-old man suspected of looting in the Waldo Canyon fire evacuation zone in 2012, Colorado Springs police said. Graylon Lloyd Thomas, who is in the El Paso County jail awaiting a June 26 preliminary hearing on burglary charges, is accused of stealing a car from an evacuated home and filling it with items plundered from another home in the area.

“DNA is the next step to what’s out there to determine culpability,” said Colorado Springs police Sgt. Gary Frasier. “The ability we have now to collect the DNA, submit it to the CBI lab and hopefully get a CODIS hit, it’s invaluable.”

CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System, is the FBI’s genetic profile database of felons and those who have been arrested on suspicion of felony crimes.

The Boulder Police Department allocated space for the Boulder/CBI High Throughput DNA Lab more than 10 years ago, but struggled to find money to equip it. Then last year, with money available from a taxpayer-approved capital improvement bond, Boulder police purchased nearly $750,000 of robotics equipment and the lab was operational by mid-October with two full-time forensic scientists, said CBI forensics services director Jan Girten.

The CBI funds operations and processes each DNA sample at a cost of $75, making its services available free-of-charge to all law enforcement agencies statewide, Girten said. The lab’s operational budget covers the cost of processing about 500 DNA samples per year, she said.

If a match is identified in the FBI database, it can be used to establish probable cause to obtain a DNA sample from a suspect to confirm the match and could become evidence in a trial.

The Boulder lab has processed samples from more than 300 cases from law enforcement agencies statewide resulting in 200 matches to convicted offenders and individuals arrested on suspicion of felony crimes, Girten said.

From those cases, the lab has generated and uploaded more than 500 new DNA profiles to the state and national CODIS databases, and has linked 25 DNA profiles to multiple cases, she said.

The ability to use DNA evidence to identify and track repeat offenders who could potentially escalate to more violent crimes is one of the lab’s greatest contributions to police, Girten said.

“Research shows that a large percentage of violent offenders start out committing lesser property crimes, such as burglaries, home invasions, and motor vehicle thefts,” Girten explained. “Being able to identify those criminals early on and having the possibility to rehabilitate them before they get in too deep is something law enforcement finds very valuable.”

Colorado Springs police have collected DNA samples from property crimes scenes for about a year, and officers have been equipped with DNA collection kits for six months, Frasier said. The variety of surfaces and items that investigators can lift DNA samples from, he said, have given law enforcement an advantage in cases that once had to rely on fingerprints and witness statements as evidence.

“DNA can be left behind by touch through body oils and skin cells and through bodily fluids. We can swab the steering wheel and seat of a recovered stolen vehicle, or in a home that’s been burglarized, places that we believe the suspects may have touched,” Frasier said. “Through DNA, in addition to fingerprints, we can place the suspects at the scene of the crime.”

Frasier said property crimes have been tougher to investigate because most stolen items end up in pawn shops or traded for drugs or weapons and are much harder to trace. Although police officers and community service officers had to go through training to learn how to collect, store and transport the DNA samples correctly, Frasier said the impact of the CBI’s lab has been overwhelmingly positive.

“There’s always a learning curve and some growing pains of how to collect and handle the DNA properly, but it’s smoothed out and running very well,” Frasier said. “Prior to the lab opening in Boulder, the crime lab in Colorado Springs had to be very selective on what they could or could not take because they had so many other violent crimes cases that took priority. Now every case can get the attention it needs.”

By focusing on property crimes, Girten said, the lab’s turnaround times for each sample submitted have remained competitive. The lab’s average turnaround for each DNA sample processed is about 55 days and the industry benchmark is about 90 days, Girten said. In general, she added, the lab processes between 15 to 30 cases per week.

Because the lab in Boulder has been operational for less than a year, Girten said, the CBI lab does not have data on the number of arrests or convictions that have resulted because of its work.

“The lab’s success is an indication of how far we’ve come in terms of collaboration between agencies and the technology that is available for DNA analysis,” said Colorado State General Attorney John Suthers.

Still, there are some who question such collection of DNA samples.

Denise Maes, public policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado, said collecting DNA from victims or individuals connected to crime scenes, is overreach by law enforcement. She contended that no matter how much oversight may be on federal agencies to handle DNA profiles correctly, the chance for human error is always present.

“Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, so taking DNA from victims as a pre-emptive measure seems absurd when fingerprints alone should be enough to eliminate anyone who belongs at the scene of a crime,” Maes said. “No matter how small any DNA sample, there is identifying information in it, otherwise they wouldn’t collect it.”

Suthers championed the use of DNA profiles for property crime investigations and said the samples were never entered into CODIS, or any other database, once the subject was cleared.

“What we love about DNA is that it convicts the guilty and exonerates the innocent,” Suthers said. “If anyone gets arrested for a felony in Colorado, their DNA is collected. Anyone acquitted can have their DNA sample withdrawn from the database. There are very strict guidelines that all law enforcement agencies have to follow when it comes to DNA collection. There are only 13 locations in the DNA strand that are recorded and no identifying markers are ever stored. Most importantly, if someone isn’t suspected of a felony or convicted, their DNA is never entered into CODIS.”

Community Service Officer Merody Broom demonstrates her DNA collection practices on a coffee cup Tuesday, May 27, 2014 outside the Gold Hill Police Substation. With a new CBI lab in Boulder, CSPD is now able to take, and quickly process DNA evidence from property crime scenes. Michael Ciaglo, The Gazette

Michael Ciaglo, The Gazette