FY2023 DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction Program - City of New York, Office of ChiefMedical 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 2022 a total of 44,243 DNA samples were extracted, with STR profiles generated, analyzed, and reviewed.  As a result, the Department uploaded 6,071 profiles into CODIS.  During the same year there were 572 cold hits to offender matches, 924 case-to-case matches, and 739 conviction matches.

To better serve our customers in the criminal justice community the Department of Forensic Biology’s 2023 goals are to (a) increase the current capacity to 60 cases processed per day, (b) reduce the turnaround time to under 60 days for crimes against people cases and to 30 days for gun crimes, and (c) reduce the case backlog to 1,500 cases.  The lab has a current backlog of 2,766, at the time of this application, and an average year-to-date turnaround time of 71 days for all case types.  The Department has made significant progress within the last couple years towards this goal but with the increase in cases received in the laboratory and a reduction in available analysts due to training and attrition, funding is needed to help process the additional cases.  The FY2023 DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction (CEBR) 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.