23. May 08
In April the police authorities of Estonia and Latvia as well as executives of the Estonian Forensic Science Institute signed a Memorandum of Understanding that provides for the exchange of DNA profiles and making comparisons in the DNA register between the two countries.
This week representatives of the Estonian Forensic Science Institute met with the police officials of the Biological Examination Department of the Forensic Service Centre of the Latvian Police who are responsible for the state DNA register.
According to Üllar Lanno, Director of the Estonian Forensic Science Institute, the police and DNA experts of Estonia set an example for their colleagues in Europe. “Our officials have managed, in a short period, to take several real steps in cooperation with our immediate neighbours to prove that it is possible to accelerate the identification of offenders, especially among unknown persons who have participated in different criminal offences,” Lanno stated.
The representatives of the Estonian Forensic Science Institute took to Latvia 5600 unidentified DNA profiles which had been obtained from DNA samples taken at various crime scenes. The Latvian colleagues, on their part, provided a data file with approximately 800 DNA unidentified profiles obtained from samples taken at crime scenes and recorded in their DNA register.
The comparisons of DNA profiles recorded in the state DNA registers of Estonia and Latvia, made in Riga on the same day, yielded the first positive matches.
“All the data will be finalised within the next month and the police will provide the partner with the final data within the framework of international police cooperation,” Lanno said.
“We are planning on making a similar cooperation proposal to Sweden next,” Üllar Lanno added.
The state DNA registers of Estonia and Latvia contain 31,000 and 12,400 profiles, respectively, which have been obtained by the police under law and forwarded to forensic examination specialists for analysis.
This week’s meeting was the second successful DNA information exchange for Estonia. At the end of 2007 a similar comparison was made between DNA profiles recorded in the state DNA registers of Estonia and Finland. Estonia sent to Finland a data file with the DNA profiles of 5116 unidentified persons and received, in exchange, a data file with the DNA profiles of 7159 unidentified persons. To the profiles sent from Estonia to Finland 25 matches were found in the Finnish DNA register.
Thus 25 criminal offences committed in Estonia may be solved with the help of the personal data entered into the Finnish DNA register. For 13 criminal offences committed in Finland 11 matches were found in the DNA register of Estonia, incl. a person recorded in the Estonian register who is associated with several offences committed in Finland.
