The City of New York is launching a new program to review hundreds of unsolved sex crimes using DNA profiles in a program titled the “John Doe Indictment Project.”

The City plans to file charges against sex abusers based on the DNA evidence even before they have linked the DNA to a suspect or before they have arrested a suspect in the crime. This will allow the city to potentially try hundreds of cases before the 10-year statute of limitations runs out.

The city will begin by reviewing 600 cases from nine years ago.

Critics of the plan, including criminal defense attorneys, say the program would essentially skirt statute of limitations regulations.