Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction of DNA Casework for the Greenville County Department of Public Safety Forensic DNA Laboratory for funded overtime, supplies, and accreditation need

The Greenville County Department of Public Safety (GC-DPS) is the agency responsible for analyzing evidential material associated with criminal investigations for local law enforcement agencies and the coroner's office within Greenville County, South Carolina.

Greenville County's budgetary constraints prevented the GC-DPS Forensic DNA Laboratory from offering free services to neighboring counties and municipalities in the upstate region of South Carolina. Initially, a fee-for-service was available to these agencies, but their budgetary constraints hindered them from using the GC-DPS Forensic DNA Laboratory. Through grant funding, the GC-DPS has provided services to process forensic biology/DNA cases for all regional agencies at a no-cost basis since January 2013. Supporting these regional agencies has positively affected turnaround of forensic biology/DNA casework in the upstate of South Carolina and reduced the backlog to the state DNA laboratory through reduction of upstate agency submissions.

The Federal funding from this award will be used for the following goals:

1. Continue to offer forensic biology/DNA services and entry into CODIS to regional upstate SC agencies at no-cost basis, increasing overall capacity of GC-DPS Forensic DNA Laboratory with DNA cases from these regional agencies.

2. Reduce the current backlog of DNA cases at the GC-DPS Forensic DNA Laboratory.

3. Continue to meet ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation standards through funding of annual audits and accreditation fees from ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB).

The GC-DPS Forensic DNA Laboratory expects to analyze at least 180 forensic biology and DNA cases specific to backlog and regional agencies with overtime and supply funds provided during the award period.