Prosecutors, police to speed up DNA analysis in sex crimes

Responding to growing calls to deter sex offenses, prosecutors and police will unite to drastically reduce the time required to analyze the DNA of criminal suspects, officials said Wednesday.

Currently, it takes up to 20 days for forensic investigators at the National Forensic Service to analyze DNA samples. An additional 14 days are usually spent as the investigators compare the results with the DNA information of the suspects.

It then takes about 20 days for the results of the DNA test in criminal cases to be given to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (SPO) by forensic investigators, with another 15 days needed before police and prosecutors are informed of the result.

At present, prosecutors and police don't exchange DNA information, raising problems in efficiency during criminal investigations.

At a meeting to be held at the SPO in Seoul later in the day, state prosecutors, police officers and the home affairs ministry officials plan to agree to change the current system of keeping and sharing the DNA information of the suspects and shorten the time in searching for a DNA match by one month.

"The improvement in the system will drastically shorten the time of identifying the whereabouts of suspects," a prosecution official said. (Yonhap)