CODIS—The Future

Through the combination of increased federal funding and expanded database laws, such as the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005, the number of profiles in NDIS has and will continue to dramatically increase, resulting in a need to re-architect the CODIS software. A considerable focus during this time will be to enhance kinship analysis software for use in identifying missing persons. This next generation of CODIS will utilize STR and mtDNA information as well as metadata (such as sex, date of last sighting, age, etc.) to help in the identification of missing persons. The re-architecture will also enable CODIS to include additional DNA technologies, such a Y Short Tandem Repeat (Y-STR) and mini-Short Tandem Repeat (miniSTR). The FBI Laboratory is committed to the support of the CODIS program. With the continued cooperation and collaboration of legislative bodies and all components of the criminal justice community—law enforcement, crime laboratories, victims, prosecutors, and the judiciary—the future of DNA, CODIS, and NDIS holds even greater promise to solve crime and identify missing persons.