BSO FY23 DNA CEBR Formula Project

The Sheriff of Broward County is charged with safeguarding over 1.9 million residents and millions more visitors by providing public safety services that enhance the quality of life for everyone in Broward. Among the public safety services is the Broward Sheriff Office’s (BSO) Regional Crime Laboratory which is part of the Statewide Criminal Analysis Laboratory System and offers Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) analysis on evidentiary samples to all Broward municipalities and any federal agencies that may request services.

The BSO Crime Laboratory DNA unit has 17 staff members. Of these members, nine (9) analysts are actively working on cases on a full-time basis including an analyst funded by the City of Fort Lauderdale. The unit also includes a Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) Administrator, two (2) CODIS Co-Administrators, a Technical Analyst, a Unit Manager, and a Forensic Technician. While the Crime Laboratory is challenged with a limited budget and nearly 1,300 new cases assigned to the DNA Unit of the laboratory each year, the staff makes every effort to meet the demands of its customers.

The DNA Unit continuously makes improvements to the Standard Operating Procedures and other policies to maximize efficiency and enhance work quality. Management supports the efforts and repeatedly requests a sustainable operational budget for the longevity of the program. Grant funding is requested to support three (3) grant-funded analysts to enhance the laboratory’s work capacity, increase the number of case samples processed, reduce the number of backlogged cases, and improve the turnaround time. In line with those capacity-enhancing efforts, funding is being requested to expand the laboratory’s work capability beyond regular working hours for the processing of backlogged samples. This effort will enable more samples to be processed and more eligible profiles to be entered into CODIS. Funding is also being requested for consumables to directly process these cases analyzed during overtime hours.

Funding is being requested to provide training opportunities for all qualified analysts to ensure they meet the minimum eight (8) hours of continuing education required by the FBI in the Quality Assurance Standards and enable certified analysts to maintain their certification through attendance at annual meetings. Funding for two (2) key site personnel to attend the mandatory 2-day forensics training for award recipients is being included in this application. This training will better enable the laboratory to develop a project that will have measurable improvements to enrich the scope and delivery of services.