All organisms leave DNA traces in their environment, including plants, animals, and humans, with every environment having a unique composition of this environmental DNA. Environmental DNA can serve as evidence that can be traced to where and when someone has been. This technique makes it significantly harder to hide where one has been.
The specific technical details and accuracy of the environmental DNA analysis method remain unclear, and it is unknown when the method can begin to be used in practice. In criminal investigations, by analyzing environmental DNA from objects like weapons, police can get information linking the object to a specific location, even in cases where fingerprints or human DNA are missing. If a suspect carries the same type of environmental DNA, it may indicate that the person has been at the same location as the weapon.
For us, it is important to be able to link a person to a place, and environmental DNA can help us with that. It can in the individual case be completely decisive.
According to SVT Skåne, Bo Lundqvist, a criminal commissioner, described that for police, it is important to be able to link a person to a place, and environmental DNA can help with that, potentially being decisive in individual cases. The legal and ethical guidelines for using environmental DNA as evidence in criminal cases have not been specified. Researchers at Lund University are working with the police's regional investigation unit South to create a register of environmental DNA in Malmö.
Malmö police are involved in the project. The current progress and timeline for creating the environmental DNA register in Malmö are not confirmed, and the cost and resource requirements for implementing this method in police investigations remain unknown.