2022 DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction (CEBR) Program

Project purpose - Over the past two years the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the State of Connecticut to face numerous significant budgetary challenges. These challenges have prevented the Division of Scientific Services from hiring sufficient additional staff or increasing the consumable supply budget to meet the State’s demand for forensic biology and DNA analysis. The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection requests Federal grant funds to support the Division of Scientific Services to increase the capacity of the laboratory and reduce processing turnaround time.

Primary activities - The primary project activities are:

To use grant-funded consumable supplies, overtime, and outsourcing to reduce the number of backlogged forensic cases
To use grant funds to continue the service contracts for sample tracking for an additional year
To use grant funds to purchase ten mobile computer workstations to increase the laboratory’s testing capacity
To use grant funds to purchase a high-density storage system for the mandated storage of sexual assault evidence
To use grant funds to purchase a workbench for the accessioning and organizing of sexual assault evidence
To use grant funds to purchase a device to help with the recovery of trace amounts of DNA from difficult substrates
To use grant funds to have four individuals attend three different scientific conferences

Expected outcomes - The purchase of supplies (80 cases), overtime (80 cases), and outsourcing (266 cases) will reduce the casework backlog by 426 cases. The grant-funded processing will reduce the turnaround time for forensic casework processing. All eligible casework DNA profiles will be entered into CODIS and uploaded to NDIS, when appropriate.

Service area - The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection serves the entire State of Connecticut with a population of 3.6 million.

Intended beneficiaries - The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection serves over 100 local, state, and federal agencies and indirectly all the citizens of the State of Connecticut.

Subrecipients - This proposal has no subrecipients.