Using DNA to catch canine culprits and their owners

Joe Gillmer had a problem. A big, stinky, sole-troubling problem plaguing Midtown Alexandria Station condos, where he serves as board vice president.

How to put this gently? Dog, er, waste in the vestibule, in the elevator (yes, really), and this particularly incensed Gillmer in the garage beside handicapped parking, making life difficult for residents with physical challenges.

What were we going to do? Gillmer says. Put up 13 cameras for $100,000 with the slim chance of catching the guy?

Instead, the condo association hired a service called PooPrints to match evidence from the crime scene to registered DNA taken from all condo dogs.

Yes, yes, Gillmer has heard all the jokes: CSI: Manure, you name it. I got a lot of criticism, he recalls. They called me the Czar of Poop.

But heres the thing: After the service was started a year ago, we only had to test one sample, Gillmer says of the only scatological crime since committed only one! This in a building with 368 units and about 600 human and 60 canine residents. Thats the sort of success that law enforcement agencies can only dream of. Now, no one dares pooh-pooh the progress that has been made.

Among the great unresolved conflicts between neighbors is determining the provenance of unwanted, unseemly and often unwittingly trampled dog detritus.

Sometimes it leads neighbors to court, as in the case of a 2011 Fairfax dispute.

And sometimes the answer is treating a trouble area like a crime scene.

Two years ago, the Chase in Bethesda had an epic problem 20 incidents, possibly more (who wants to keep count?), mostly indoors, one parcel described as being more the product of Sasquatch than a pooch. Until the introduction of scatological forensics, which basically ended the mess for good, and with stunning alacrity.

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Using DNA to catch canine culprits and their owners