FY2022 DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction Program - City of New York, Office of Chief Medical Examiner

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner, Department of Forensic Biology, serves as the public forensic laboratory for the City of New York and provides DNA testing on thousands of case submissions every year. In 2021 a total of 48,206 DNA samples were extracted, with STR profiles generated, analyzed, and reviewed.  As a result, the Department uploaded 6,238 profiles into CODIS.  During the same year there were 301 cold hits to offender matches, 1,600 case-to-case matches and 646 conviction matches

To better serve our customers in the criminal justice community the Department of Forensic Biology’s 2022 goals are to increase the current capacity and reduce the turnaround time and case backlog to 60 and 1,700, respectively.  The lab has a current backlog of 3,315, at the time of this application, and an average year-to-date turnaround time of 85 for all case types.  The Department has made significant progress within the last couple years towards this goal but with the increased in cases received in the laboratory and a reduction in available analysts due to training and attrition, and the COVID-19 Pandemic, funding is needed to help process the additional cases.  The FY2021 DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction (CERB) program proposal aims to achieve productivity and timeliness of DNA testing by focusing on the following actions:

Increase available staff hours through overtime.
Purchase of supplies.
Continue to fund previous grant-funded positions.
Reduce backlog and turnaround times.

It is expected that overtime and continued staff will result in additional assignments process.  The overall goal is to further reduce backlog and turnaround time in half within the 24 months of this grant period through process improvements and continued overtime and available supplies funding.