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The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is a powerful tool that supports the criminal justice system by generating investigative leads, identifying perpetrators, and linking cases together—helping to identify serial criminal activity. The term CODIS typically represents the FBI’s operations program for databases that support the criminal justice system as well as software for the system. DNA profiles obtained from convicted offenders and arrestees are entered into the appropriate index (i.e., Convicted Offender Index or Arrestee Index) and uploaded into the State DNA Index System (SDIS) and the National DNA Index System (NDIS); SDIS and NDIS are both components of CODIS. Through the search process, CODIS may identify a match between the DNA profile obtained from a forensic crime scene sample and the DNA profile obtained from a convicted offender or an arrestee; this match results in an offender CODIS hit. An offender CODIS hit is a valuable investigative lead. Recent research and practitioner experiences have confirmed that the CODIS database is not consistently populated with DNA profiles obtained from (1) convicted offenders’ DNA samples and, in relevant states, (2) arrestees. These samples—often known as “lawfully owed DNA” samples—are critical to CODIS, which is founded on being a comprehensive national system supporting the criminal justice system. This study—conducted by the National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ’s) Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCoE), in collaboration with several U.S. agencies—seeks to identify (1) potential barriers related to the collection, tracking, and processing of arrestee and convicted offender samples as well as (2) successful policies. The following report also highlights recommendations for improved and more efficient tracking, collection, and testing of lawfully owed DNA samples. This report can assist criminal justice stakeholders with identifying and resolving needs associated with the effective tracking, collection, and testing of lawfully owed DNA samples to ensure the state and national databases are appropriately populated to comply with state and national legislation.