Eliminating The DNA Case Backlog At The State Crime Lab

Attorney General’s Report

Eliminating The DNA Case Backlog At The State Crime Lab
by J. B. Van Hollen

The Wisconsin Legislature established the state crime laboratories “to provide technical assistance to local law enforcement officers in the various fields of scientific investigation in the aid of law enforcement.” Court decisions of recent years have resulted in the need for law enforcement officers to conduct more thorough crime scene investigations. Comprehensive training combined with advances in technology has resulted in more meaningful evidence being recovered and submitted to the crime laboratories for examination.

DNA forensics plays an increasingly important role in both the identification of suspects and the conviction of guilty criminal defendants. It has become a primary tool of law enforcement. The Madison and Milwaukee laboratories provide DNA services, but they have been unable to keep up with the ever-growing demand. As a result, at the close of 2006, there were 1,785 DNA cases pending. To put this into perspective, if there were no new cases submitted for DNA analysis, with existing resources it would take the state crime lab well over a year — up to 20 months — just to process pending cases. New cases, however, are submitted at an increasing rate. Almost as many new cases are added daily to the backlog as are processed.

No single issue has received more of my attention in my first two months of office than the DNA backlog. I have been working hard with the Legislature and the Governor to ensure that the crime lab gets the personnel and other resources that it badly needs to not only keep up with submissions, but to ultimately eliminate the backlog. As soon as I took office, I initiated a study within the Department of Justice to quantify the resources needed to eliminate the backlog of DNA cases by 2010 and remain current with future submissions. That study identified the need for 31 additional DNA positions. The Governor recognized the need for increased resources for the labs and included 15 new DNA analyst positions in his budget adjustment bill for the current biennium. On February 28, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee amended and passed the budget adjustment bill to give the Department of Justice the 31 positions that we identified as necessary to address the DNA issue. As of this writing, the full Legislature still needs to act on the bill. Several legislators and the Governor have indicated their support for the 31 positions, but until the bill is signed by the Governor we must continue to make a case for this critical public safety legislation.

Personnel resources at the crime lab are only part of the zero-backlog equation. The crime lab’s productivity is also a function of the technologies available to DNA analysts, their efficiency, the number of samples submitted, and the amount of time each analyst spends at the bench as opposed to other important functions, such as crime scene collection and providing expert witness services. Under my direction and that of Gary Hamblin, DOJ’s new Administrator of Law Enforcement Services, DOJ will work hard to achieve efficiencies that are within DOJ’s control. We are working hard to bring new technologies online that will increase the number of cases each analyst can process. We are also actively looking at other ways to improve efficiency. But I also need your help.

We must work together to ensure that the right evidence is collected and only the samples necessary to obtain scientifically meaningful results are submitted to the crime lab for analysis. We must also work together to ensure that local law enforcement is appropriately trained to collect evidence, thus maximizing the time DNA analysts have on the bench. To that end, DOJ will develop training opportunities to help you help us eliminate the backlog.

As with so many other law enforcement goals, the goal of eliminating the backlog can only be achieved if we work in partnership with one another. I look forward to hearing your ideas and being your partner in our mutual mission to make Wisconsin a safer place to live.