NYC Medical Examiner's gun crime unit begins work next week
NEW YORK - Beginning Monday, the New York City Medical Examiner's Office is launching its new DNA Gun Crimes Unit.
Meant to help speed up both testing and the criminal justice process, the forensic lab is the first of its kind in the country dedicated exclusively to processing gun crimes.
"As far as gun cases, we handle over six thousand cases," said Senior Forensic Scientist Gabrielle McKenzie.
That's six thousand gun cases a year in New York City. Now, the city Medical Examiner's Office has a gun crime unit that will be staffed with 24 forensic scientists.
NYC overall crime up, murders down
Although overall index crime in New York City was up, murders and shooters were down in September 2022 compared to September 2021. But the top brass said a few people are committing the vast majority of the crimes, which they say highlights the problem of recidivism.
What makes the lab new is that scientists working there are strictly devoted to processing and analyzing DNA found on guns, rather than fingerprints.
The team will get faster results for the NYPD, prosecutors as well as defense lawyers who represent accused shooters.
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"We, in building this unit, are going to reduce our turnaround time in gun crimes cases from 60 days to less than 30 days and that's revolutionary," said Dr. Jason Graham, the city’s Chief Medical Examiner.
The unit has been created to help deal with the city's gun crisis and is independently run by scientists.
Providing the criminal justice system with DNA results more quickly helps both the guilty and the innocent.
"That would lead to either a faster more efficient exoneration of someone who's innocent and a speedier conviction of someone who's guilty and maybe a threat to New Yorkers on the street," Dr. Graham said.
"We will help to resolve a lot of crimes, and we will help get justice to people who need it," said Vanessa Sutherland, one of the new forensic scientists on the team.
The new gun unit will officially begin its work on Monday, October 17.