This proposal will provide funding to enable the pennsylvania state police, bureau of forensic services to reduce the number of backlog DNA cases and increase the capacity of the laboratory to analyze…

The Department of State Police Pennsylvania was awarded a $1,622,427 DNA Backlog Reduction Program formula grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance on October 1, 2023. This funding will enable the Pennsylvania State Police, Bureau of Forensic Services to reduce the number of backlog DNA cases and increase the laboratory's capacity to analyze samples. Key activities include:

Replacing and upgrading existing equipment, purchasing supplies for DNA analysis, providing overtime and fringe benefits for DNA personnel to process, analyze, and review backlog cases, and funding training opportunities to meet continuing education requirements. By increasing the laboratory's capacity, the goal is to analyze more crime scene samples and cases per month, thereby reducing the current DNA casework backlog. The funding will also support efforts to decrease the laboratory's average turnaround time for DNA analysis and increase the number of eligible DNA profiles uploaded into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

This proposal will provide funding to enable the pennsylvania state police, bureau of forensic services to reduce the number of backlog DNA cases and increase the capacity of the laboratory to analyze samples. Funds are requested to replace and upgrade existing equipment as well as purchase supplies for the analysis of casework. Overtime and fringe benefits are sought for DNA personnel to process, analyze, and review backlog cases. Funds for training opportunities to meet the continuing education requirement are also being requested. The pennsylvania state police, forensic DNA division provides DNA analysis for the entire commonwealth at no cost to law enforcement agencies. This includes 67 counties and over 900 police agencies. The pennsylvania state police, bureau of forensic services is an anab-accredited laboratory system with six (6) regional crime laboratories and one (1) forensic DNA division. The six regional laboratories screen biological evidence and submit probative items to the DNA division as well as provide other services such drug analysis, ballistics, documents, and trace analysis. By increasing the capacity of the laboratory, the analysts will be able to analyze more crime scene samples and cases per month. This increase in the number of cases worked is anticpated to reduce the casework backlog. The pennsylvania state police forensic DNA division is dedicated to reducing its current average turnaround time in DNA analysis and uploading more samples into codis. The forensic DNA division is the state site for codis within the commonwealth which includes the DNA convicted offender databank. All eligible DNA profiles will be uploaded into ndis. At the end of the grant period, the laboratorys aim is to reduce the current and anticipated backlogs in DNA. The goal is to reduce the turnaround time in the forensic DNA division. The laboratory will set its goal to reduce turnaround time per case. IT is hoped this grant will provide the ability to process more cases and decrease the days IT takes for a case to be completed.