An important objective of the ST. Louis county police crime laboratory is to provide more efficient processing to reduce or at least maintain turnaround time and increase the number of forensic DNA…

The St. Louis County Crime Laboratory will use $259,146 from the Department of Justice's DNA Backlog Reduction Program to maintain three full-time positions and database software licenses. The laboratory serves over one million citizens and provides forensic services to the St. Louis County Police Department and 90 municipalities. Grant funding will support two Biology/DNA analyst positions, one DNA technician position, and licenses for Database Likelihood Ratios software to rapidly calculate likelihood ratios. This will allow the laboratory to complete approximately 6,000 cases over the two-year award period ending September 30, 2024, with around 1,700 cases attributed to this funding. The DNA Backlog Reduction Program (CFDA 16.741) aims to increase laboratory capacity and reduce forensic DNA sample backlogs at state and local levels.

An important objective of the ST. Louis county police crime laboratory is to provide more efficient processing to reduce or at least maintain turnaround time and increase the number of forensic DNA samples processed. The laboratory serves more than one million citizens and provides services to the ST. Louis county police department as well as 90 municipalities, 56 which have their own police department. The biology/DNA unit within the crime laboratory continually implements workflow changes and implements new technologies when funding allows yet the sample submissions still outpace the rate of completion which can negatively impact backlog reduction. Grant funding provided by the 2022 DNA capacity enhancement and backlog reduction program will be used to maintain two full-time biology/DNA analyst positions, one DNA technician position, and licenses for database likelihood ratios (dblr) for the rapid calculation of likelihood ratios. The ST. Louis county crime laboratory expects to complete approximately 6000 cases total (approximately 1,700 of those cases attributed to grant funding) over the award period of 24 months.