State of problem: in addition to providing a higher quality of forensic science services provided to the state of tennessee, the new instrumentation and software requests by tennessee bureau of…

The Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration's Office of Business and Finance Division was awarded a $452,448 Formula Grant under the U.S. Department of Justice's Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grant Program (CFDA 16.742). The funding will be used to purchase new analytical instrumentation and software for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to enhance the quality and efficiency of forensic science services provided to the state. Specifically, the grant will fund the acquisition of a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer with autosampler, a stereomicroscope, and an Aztec hardware and software upgrade. Additionally, the grant will support the purchase of 30 Surface Pro 6 tablets for county medical examiners and death investigators to improve documentation and reduce administrative burdens. The goal of this 2-year project is to reduce the backlog of cases at the TBI crime laboratory and provide higher quality forensic services across Tennessee.

State of problem: in addition to providing a higher quality of forensic science services provided to the state of tennessee, the new instrumentation and software requests by tennessee bureau of investigation (TBI) will increase the labs ability to process cases more efficiently as they will increase tbis capabilities, require less analysis time, and require less examiner time for troubleshooting. Due to the increased efficiency provided with this new instrumentation and software, an increase in case throughput will naturally occur thus allowing the examiners additional time to examine and reduce the backlogged cases. Utilization of inferior instrumentation for case work can not only jeopardize the results of the case but can also jeopardize the laboratories accreditation and any pending prosecution. Another problem is easing the administrative burden on the state medicolegal death investigators, as well as improving the tools available to the county medical examiners, the oscme would like to purchase thirty (30) surface tablets. How award will be utilized: purchases of aztec hardware and software upgrade, gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC-MS) with auto sampler towers, and leica M205C stereomicroscope for tennessee bureau of investigation. Purchases of surface pro 6'S, the surface tablets will enable county medical examiners and medical investigators to produce quality death investigation documentation. The outcome would be to reduce the backlog work at the tennessee bureau of investigation, along with reducing administrative burden to the county medical examiners.