The oklahoma city police forensic DNA laboratory continues to see a significant increase in case submission requests as well as the number of samples to be analyzed per case and is seeking to…

The Oklahoma City Police Forensic DNA Laboratory received a $324,612 Formula Grant award from the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance under the DNA Backlog Reduction Program (CFDA 16.741). The laboratory will enhance capacity and reduce case backlogs through the purchase of laboratory automation equipment, analyst training, outsourcing of CODIS-eligible backlog cases, and overtime for casework. Specifically, funds will be used to acquire a liquid handling robot and higher capacity DNA extraction robot to process more samples with current staffing. Analysts will attend continuing education conferences. Approximately 80 backlogged cases will be outsourced to a private testing laboratory and technical reviews of outsourced work will be completed to facilitate CODIS entry. Overtime funds will allow rapid reduction of at least 80 backlogged cases within the award period ending September 30, 2024.

The oklahoma city police forensic DNA laboratory continues to see a significant increase in case submission requests as well as the number of samples to be analyzed per case and is seeking to enhance capacity through purchase of laboratory automation, training & reduction of backlog via outsourcing assistance case work analyst overtime. The award project will consist of the following goals: purchase of laboratory automation. The laboratory seeks to enhance its capacity and efficiency by adding a liquid handling robot as well as a higher capacity DNA extraction robot to allow the laboratory to process more samples consistently with current staffing levels. Continued analyst training - some funds are being pursued to assist with ongoing professional training conference attendance for DNA analysts. Outsourcing of codis eligible backlogs DNA cases. This goal will involve outsourcing of backlogged cases to private testing laboratory with a goal of reducing the current backlog by around 20%. The laboratory will select and send out cases with codis candidate potential. Partnership with external testing laboratory will alleviate backlog and turn-around times. Overtime for forensic casework - analyst overtime has proved a successful method of rapidly reducing the backlog to manageable levels in a short period of time while maximizing the number and speed of profiles viable for codis entry. Since the laboratory is currently seeing a high trend upwards in case submissions for service, this backlog is not expected to decrease anytime soon, utilizing award funds to attempt to reduce the backlog rapidly by at least eighty cases within the award period is anticipated to assist positioning the laboratory in a good standing to move forward and maintain a proactive approach to turn around times on casework. Part of this overtime goal will be to allow the laboratory staff to rapidly perform technical reviews of outsourced casework for ndis entry. This project will also facilitate cases being worked faster, technical reviews to be conducted and additional profiles being uploaded into codis.