FBI Brings CODIS Software to Costa Rica

Today, the FBI announced plans to share the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) technology with our law enforcement partners in Costa Rica. The initiative demonstrates and reaffirms the FBI’s commitment to assist international law enforcement agencies in combating violent crime.

A letter of agreement will allow the Poder Judicial Republic of Costa Rica to operate a DNA database utilizing the same platform as many of its South American, Mexican, and Caribbean counterparts.

Once CODIS is installed, the Poder Judicial Republic of Costa Rica will join more than 70 international laboratories that are using the software for the management of its DNA data. The CODIS system provided will have no connectivity to the U.S. national DNA database.

The FBI Laboratory sponsors CODIS as part of a technical assistance program to international law enforcement forensic laboratories. CODIS blends forensic science and computer technology into an effective tool for solving violent crimes. The software allows laboratories to store, compare, and match DNA records from offenders, crime scene evidence, unidentified human remains, and relatives of missing persons. Centralized DNA data enables law enforcement to benefit from new information in previously unrelated investigations.

In 1998, the national DNA database, known as the National DNA Index System (NDIS), was established in the United States. Currently NDIS has over 11 million searchable profiles and has aided close to 170,000 investigations.

DNA databases have proven to be invaluable to the law enforcement community and the victims of violent crimes and their families. They have been particularly helpful to investigations that are very old and no longer producing new leads. Decades ago, crimes from cold cases would have remained unsolved.

With the participation of more than 260 laboratories in over 35 countries, CODIS software has been instrumental in solving violent crimes throughout the world.

The FBI is pleased that our law enforcement partners in Costa Rica are joining the CODIS team.