Bill requiring Illinois State Police to perform rapid DNA testing passes Senate

ByJason Knowles and Ann Pistone WLS logo
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Bill requiring Illinois State Police to perform rapid DNA testing passes Senate
Action is being taken to reduce delays in testing DNA evidence that's sitting unchecked.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Action is being taken to reduce delays in testing DNA evidence that's sitting unchecked.

A bipartisan state bill to implement "Rapid DNA" had already passed in the House, and on Tuesday, it passed unanimously in the Senate.

The bill requires the Illinois State Police Crime lab to submit a report by the end of September on how to bring new rapid DNA testing to the state crime lab.

"Rapid DNA" can drastically reduce the turnaround time in certain tests.

This is however something the ISP already said it was implementing and it recently shared its plan with Jason Knowles and the I-Team.

Last year, the I-Team exposed major crime lab backlogs, including more than 750 Chicago murder cases, stalled, awaiting analysis.