Compliance with Standards Governing Combined DNA Index
Kentucky State Police Forensic Laboratory
Audit Report GR-40-01-004
Office of the Inspector General
The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of compliance with standards governing Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) activities at the Kentucky State Police Forensic Laboratory (Laboratory). CODIS is a national computerized information repository maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that permits the storing, maintaining, tracking, and searching of DNA specimen information in order to facilitate the exchange of DNA information by law enforcement agencies. Laboratories that participate in CODIS perform DNA analysis on specimens from convicted offenders or crime-scene evidence. These laboratories use special software, provided free of charge by the FBI, to organize and manage the DNA profiles and related information. The software also compares DNA profiles from participating laboratories and notifies the appropriate laboratories when two or more DNA profiles match.
In addition to authorizing CODIS, the DNA Identification Act of 1994 specified several standards for laboratories that contribute profiles to the FBI National DNA Index System (NDIS). A laboratory must certify that it is performing DNA analysis in compliance with the FBI standards governing laboratory operations. Further, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is enacted between the FBI and participating state laboratories establishing the responsibilities of each party as part of CODIS. The MOU establishes general and specific standards that are to be followed by a laboratory in order to participate in CODIS and utilize NDIS, including the upload of DNA profiles to NDIS.
Our audit covered the period from the implementation of CODIS at the Laboratory in February 1995 through November 2000. The overall objective of the audit was to determine the extent of the Laboratory’s compliance with standards governing CODIS activities. To address the overall objective, we considered:
With the following exceptions, we found that the Laboratory complied with standards governing CODIS activities that we tested.