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 Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded a $245,973 Formula Grant under the Comprehensive Forensic DNA Analysis Grant Program (CFDA 16.036) to St. Louis County, Missouri. The grant funding will be used to maintain two full-time Biology/DNA Analyst positions and one DNA Technician position at the St. Louis County Crime Laboratory. Additionally, the grant will support a STRMIX version upgrade and validation to enhance the DNA interpretation software. Over the 24-month award period, the St. Louis County Crime Laboratory expects to complete approximately 6,000 forensic DNA cases, with 2,000 of those cases attributed to the grant funding. The goal of the program is to assist state and local government forensic science laboratories in enhancing their DNA testing capabilities, reducing backlogs, and increasing the capacity to analyze DNA evidence for entry into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

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 and entered in the combined DNA index system. The laboratory serves more than one million citizens and provides services to the ST. Louis county police department as well as 88 municipalities, 51 which have their own police department. Grant funding provided by the FY24 formula DNA capacity enhancement and backlog reduction program will be used to maintain two full-time biology/DNA analyst positions and one DNA technician position. The strmix version upgrade and validation will ensure a timely implementation of additional functionalities to the software used for DNA interpretation. The ST. Louis county crime laboratory expects to complete approximately 6,000 cases total (approximately 2,000 of those cases attributed to grant funding) over the award period of 24 months.