FY2021 DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction Program

The Verdugo Regional Crime Laboratory (VRCL) was founded mainly to address the demand for DNA testing of evidence recovered from property and financial crimes within the City of Glendale and Burbank. The Verdugo Regional Crime Laboratory, accredited in May 2013, has assumed forensic DNA testing of all GPD cases and accepts cases from other regional local and federal law enforcement agencies. The Laboratory has used previous grant program funds to implement liquid handling robotics to remove manual processing thereby increasing efficiency and sample capacity. The VRCL proposes to utilize these grant funds to purchase additional liquid handling robotics in order to provide much needed redundancy and increased throughput. The requested robots also have expanded capabilities that can handle larger sample volumes and a target input range for amplification. The VRCL Forensic Biology Unit will be able to increase sample capacity and reduce the number of backlogged cases by addressing bottle necks in evidence processing.