and so in using this method, we are getting those people off of the streets that could possibly be out there victimizing other victims. so i don t think you can put a price tag on this particular method. jill, as we re saying this is being done in california. do you think that this technique could be expanded to other states? have other states approached you to ask how is this being implemented there in california? i have been approached by other states asking how we ve done our software. our software was basically homegrown here at our richmond facility by some brilliant scientists who created the software to search the convicted ander database using the crime scene sample. yes, i have been approached by other states. jill sprigs, thanks for coming on today. wish you continued success with this new and bold technique. thank you. thank you. it s very exciting. so it is a very busy day. a lot hoop iappening. news throughout the day that you don t want to miss. members of senat
as a rape/homicide. three, when investigative leads have been exhausted. this particular technique that we re using, this familial searching technique, allows us to solve cases that would never have been solved. jill, how effective is it? i know you have these three criteria you just pointed out but what is the estimation of its effectiveness? the estimation of the effectiveness of it is the british will tell you about 10% of the time, so one out of every ten searches they do will have a familial search hit. so far we have done 18 searches and we have 2 hits. so that s a little bit more than 10% of the time. what do you make of the negative reactions that some people are having of the use of this technique? what s your response to them? my response to the negative reaction is i don t think you can put a price on a family member who finally have closure in a case or public safety. public safety is very important.
a renaissance man with interests in physics and music and gourmet cooking. his greatest failing, his father wrote, was an unquenchable love of the boston red sox. so a multitalented young manslaughtered. his family grieving. the neighbors frightened and the police scrambling for news. another story out of california, a controversial genetic crime fighting technique is sparking debate today over whether a crime suspect should be traced using his family s dna. it is called familial searching. california is one of three states that permits this technique. i m joined by jill sprigs, chief of the justice department s bureau of forensics services. jill, how is this tech tenique how often is it being used to catch suspected criminals? the familial technique is used when three things are happening. one, it s a public safety issue. two, it s a violent crime such
stopped. then nearly 15 years later, the grim sleeper would strike again. who was he? where was he hiding? police would have to wait another two decades to find the answers. we have about 1 1/2 million samples stored in the laboratory. reporter: a critical piece of the puzzle would be found here in the third largest dna repository in the world. california has been collecting dna from convicted felons since 2004. police had the serial killer s dna from the crime scenes. was it possible it was here as well? we are on the cutting edge of this technology. reporter: jill sprigs who heads the lab says forensic scientists recently developed a powerful investigative weapon called the familial dna search program, computer software that can find similarities between crime scene dna and the dna of a convicted felon. the killer s dna s not in the database, but maybe a relative s is. it is only convicted offenders we re comparing to, not arrestees in california.
2004. police had the serial killer s dna for the crime scenes, was it possible it was here as well? we re on the cutting edge of this technology. jill sprigs who heads the lab said scientists recently developed a powerful investigative weapon, a familial dna search weapon. they can find familiar yarts between a cream scene dna and the dna of a convicted felon. it was not a convicted felon. two years ago ran the killer s dna searching for a link, but no match. then a major break, lat year criminalists entered the dna of a man recently convicted of a felony weapons charge, his name was christopher franklin. months later detectives ran the grim sleeper s dna again, for a second time, hoping to a match to a family member. they got it. detectives zeroed in on