After three decades prosecuting violent crime, I can tell you the most painful case files are not the ones without evidence. They are the ones where the evidence existed — a confirmed DNA match sitting in CODIS — and nobody acted on it.
A hit is a notification problem, not a science problem
By the time CODIS returns a hit, the science has done its job. The lab confirms the match and sends a notification letter to the investigating agency. What happens next is where cases stall: the detective has transferred, retired, or inherited two hundred other files. The letter lands in a mailbox, not a workflow. No one is accountable for the response, and no one upstream knows whether the lead was ever pursued.
What we learned from the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative
In Ventura County, federal SAKI funding let us identify and test every outstanding sexual assault kit held by local law enforcement. Testing produced hits — and the hits exposed the real bottleneck. Without a system that tracked each notification to its logical conclusion, viable investigative leads risked becoming cold cases a second time.
- Every hit needs a named, current investigative contact — not an agency address.
- Notifications need receipts: delivered, seen, and answered, with timestamps.
- Silence needs an escalation path that runs automatically, on a schedule the lab sets.
Closing the follow-up gap
That experience is why we built Forensic Tracker. A lab scientist registers the hit in minutes; the assigned detective is notified by email or SMS; a secure, password-less form captures the status update; and if nothing comes back, the system escalates until someone answers. Notify. Update. Escalate.
For victims who have waited years, the difference between a letter in a mailbox and a tracked notification can be the difference between an open question and an arrest.