FY 22 Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants Program - Formula

This proposal involves two agencies in Virginia, the Department of Forensic Science and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The SAA for this grant is the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.

(OCME)
The quality of service provided by the OCME has a significant impact on law-enforcement agencies, public health and safety programs, grieving families, and the development of interventions to prevent deaths within the Commonwealth and nationwide. The purposes of the OCME’s funding request are 1)to train forensic pathology fellows in a manner that will have them suitable to take and pass the Forensic Pathology Board Certification examination; 2) to obtain the toxicology testing services of a private laboratory to conduct testing on suspected drug overdose cases to minimize the time it takes to get results and to obtain testing for those drugs that our state toxicology laboratory cannot test for; 3) to provide a minimum of eight hours of job-related/discipline training for OCME staff members, primarily forensic pathologists and medicolegal death investigators. 

(DFS)
The purposes of this DFS funding request are: 1)to provide a minimum of sixteen hours of discipline/job-specific training annually for laboratory management and approximately 145 scientists in various scientific disciplines within the Chemistry, Physical Evidence, and Toxicology program areas; 2) to move case file documentation processes from paper to digital records to increase overall efficiency, access, and minimize administrative tasks; 3) to increase efficiency in the overall laboratory system by continuing to fund  a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) Customer Coordinator position to conduct system testing, prepare training materials, provide customer training, and manage customer login credentials.