The Arkansas State Crime Laboratory has launched Rapid DNA technology at participating county jails, making Arkansas the third state in the country to put the tool in booking stations.
The system produces a DNA profile from a qualifying arrestee’s sample in about 90 minutes. During the initial rollout, each profile is uploaded to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System and checked first against crime-scene profiles tied to public-safety cases, with a wider search of all eligible crime-scene profiles within 24 hours. If a profile matches evidence from a crime scene, both the booking agency and the investigating agency are notified right away.
For now the program is limited to two central Arkansas jails. The Saline County Detention Center in Benton began processing samples Sept. 23, and the Faulkner County Detention Center in Conway is expected to start in the near future…