Aggregated News

DNA profiles of saliva evidence taken as part of a new transit police crackdown on spitting assaults against MBTA workers will be stored indefinitely in an FBI-run databank, authorities said yesterday.

The Herald reported yesterday that T police now plan to use DNA kits to swab the spittle of barbaric riders who expectorate on the face or body of bus drivers and other frontline transit workers in an effort to identify the offender.

The samples will be tested at either the Boston or state police crime labs and results will be cross-referenced with the state’s DNA database, which contains profiles from more than 94,000 convicted felons.

Deputy Transit Police Chief Lewis Best said yesterday chemists at both labs will enter the DNA results from the saliva samples into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, better known as CODIS.

Boston Police Department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said yesterday that test reports and case records prepared by its lab are “maintained indefinitely” and that the only database it uses is CODIS.

According to the FBI’s website, CODIS serves as a national DNA index...