The sacramento county district attorney laboratory of forensic services (hereafter referred to as the crime laboratory) is expected to experience budget cycles in which no new growth requests for…

The County of Sacramento Department of Finance Division received a $133,051 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance under the DNA Backlog Reduction Program (CFDA 16.741) to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the Sacramento County District Attorney Laboratory of Forensic Services. The funding will enable the purchase of a second QIAcube Connect instrument to automate the sperm pellet rinses during the DNA extraction process, which is currently done manually. Additionally, the grant supports the procurement of new laptops with larger screens to increase analyst efficiency for data analysis and reporting. These investments are intended to expand the laboratory's capacity to process CODIS-eligible crime scene samples and improve overall efficiency in DNA processing, helping to address budget constraints and recent staffing losses.

The sacramento county district attorney laboratory of forensic services (hereafter referred to as the crime laboratory) is expected to experience budget cycles in which no new growth requests for DNA positions will be approved for the 2024-2025 fiscal years. In the past three years, the crime laboratory has lost three full-time qualified DNA analysts due to retirements or promotions. Despite these challenges, the crime laboratory is committed to meeting the competitive DNA capacity enhancement for backlog reduction (cebr) program goals of 1) increasing the capacity of the laboratory to process codis eligible crime scene samples, and 2) increasing the laboratorys efficiency for processing codis eligible crime scene samples. The crime laboratoryexpects to improve efficiency by purchasing a second qiacube connect instrument for automating the sperm pellet rinses during the differential extraction process which is currently done manually. The addition of a second qiacube connect instrument will increase the DNA analysts hands-on time by approximately 1.5 hours per extraction set. The purchase of new laptops with bigger screens to replace old and outdated laptops would help increase analysts efficiency with data analyzing and lims-plus report writing.