A new state law will help cops solve more cold cases — but the NYPD unit that investigates them has been shrunk almost to extinction, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
In March, the state became the first in the country to require DNA samples from almost every criminal convicted of a felony or misdemeanor.
But the number of detectives assigned to the NYPD Cold Case Squad — the specialists with the experience to turn a DNA match into a conviction — has dwindled to just eight.
That compares to 50 when the squad was founded in 1996. “The unit is stretched to the max,’’ a source said.
“DNA proves you were there. It doesn’t prove you committed a murder,” another source said.
The city has had about 9,000 unsolved murders since 1985.
An FBI study found that to solve a homicide, an investigator should work no more than three cases at a time. City cold-case experts handle 50 to 100 cases at once.
Manhattan, Queens and The Bronx each have two cold-case detectives. Two others cover all of Brooklyn and Staten Island.