CAPE CORAL, Fl - Police have a new tool in their arsenal against crime. It's called, "touch DNA".

In years past, investigators would have to find some bodily fluid like saliva or blood to obtain a DNA sample.

Now, if a suspect were to rub his / her eyes or cover their mouth to cough and touch anything else, a DNA sample could be obtained from that object.

This gives crime scene investigators a number of new locations to search for DNA at a crime scene.

In addition, the samples can be much smaller then they had to be in the past.

Law enforcement officers and investigators from across southwest Florida spent the Monday morning at Cape Coral's police department learning about the advances in DNA technology from Lisa Wennersten of DNA Lab International.

The new technology allows samples to be processed more quickly, but at a price.

Each sample submitted for analysis can cost a law enforcement agency up to one thousand dollars.