Attorney General Bob Ferguson has hit the ground running in a push to more aggressively gather DNA from serious offenders in Washington. In a statement by the Attorney General's Office, Ferguson's lawfully owed DNA project has collected samples from over 2,600 convicted felons who had previously not complied with legal requirements to submit their DNA.

The effort to collect DNA from sex offenders and individuals convicted of violent crimes is part of a statewide initiative to improve public safety. These samples have been added to the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which is instrumental in helping to quickly solve unsolved violent crimes. More than four years into the project, Ferguson's office has managed to quickly bring in 2,681 DNA samples which have returned 97 "hits" in the system, potentially solving future and past crimes.

Washington’s mandate on DNA collection from offenders has a twofold aim: to bring perpetrators to justice and to potentially exonerate the wrongfully accused. As Ferguson stated, and reported by his office, "In order to deliver justice for crime victims and improve public safety for all Washingtonians, we must ensure that serious offenders provide their DNA as required by law."

The DNA justice trail doesn't just stop at current offenders; the AG's office is now expanding efforts to include a wider variety of felony offenses. With the backing of initial data from the Department of Corrections, the office is working diligently to not only collect but also to verify samples, to make sure no owed DNA slips through the cracks of the system. Since the project’s inception in October 2019, a partnership that includes local law enforcement has been crucial in these strides to quite literally reconnect the dots of criminal activity across the state and country.