JAYFORCE

Impeccable timing! I read about ‘DNA Fog’ a while ago in Businessweek, and now there’s a YouTube video on it.

Law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and the U.K. will have a new crime-fighting weapon at their disposal. Ever watched Law & Order, CSI, or some other crime drama series? Then you know a bit about how DNA might be gathered and used to catch criminals. Looks pretty complicated, right? And ‘smart’ criminals always seem to know not to leave DNA behind. Well, Applied DNA Sciences touts that its DNA Fog will thwart criminals’ efforts to get away or get away with it in court. The company’s tech rapidly fills a room/area with a fog that may confuse a robber or batterer… but the big innovation has to do with forensics. Criminals will have a much harder time raising reasonable doubt because the fog also genetically marks them, covering them with DNA evidence. The DNA Fog’s genetic material sticks tenaciously to clothes and skin and won’t wash out or off for weeks. The Fog will be uniquely customized for a location using it, so that a simple test will reveal that an offender was at a particular crime scene when the Fog was sprayed. Genius!

– @ojones1

Now… you know by now that I have thought of a ‘scary’ angle. Imagine folks who carry out their own brand of justice. Say a “Nino Brown” type gets this technology… It’s over for you if you try to take something from a crime boss and get DNA-sprayed. No need to try and lie your way out of it if you get caught… “rock-a-bye baby!”

Okay, one more: What if government agencies are using DNA Fog? Bad news at the checkpoint for a spy trying to slip out of a foreign land after a mission… or for an eager reporter trying to expose wrong-doing at the highest levels. A quick swab would be give officials evidence they need to detain someone (or worse); or to escalate the situation into an international incident!