Increasing Investigative Effectiveness and Value

Improving. Getting better. Becoming the best. Most people naturally aspire to continually improve themselves, their surroundings and their effectiveness. Although exceptions most likely exist, the criminal investigators I know jump at the chance to increase their crime solving skills through study, training and hard work, and taking advantage of any tool they can leverage to gain even more benefit. Regardless of the type of tool, if it will help solve a crime, investigators want it used in their case. DNA profiling is one tool that has become critical in its application, and by improving the strength and discrimination of a DNA profile, the value to a case increases exponentially.

So how do we, as members of the forensics and crime solving community, improve the DNA tools available to investigators? Where and what do we invest in to get the biggest bang for the buck? Based on feedback over the past several years, I submit to you that there are very limited options that can claim a higher return on investment in helping solve and prosecute crime than the superior forensic DNA collection of the M-Vac System.

Is that a bold statement? You bet it is! But one that is backed up with data, and more recently, casework. Let's take a look. Several years ago we took the M-Vac System to a private DNA lab and asked them to test the viability of using the M-Vac to collect DNA material from evidentiary surfaces. When the lab presented the results to us, they essentially told us they had never seen DNA collection results like what they had seen from the M-Vac. When the lab told us the M-Vac had collected up to 200X more than the swabbing method in sampling saliva from cotton, we knew the M-Vac could be a special tool in the forensics industry.

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