City of Mesa Forensic Services BJA FY 24 DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction Program Grant Application

Mesa Forensic Services is responsible for the examination of evidence from all types of crimes within the following Arizona communities: City of Mesa, Town of Gilbert, City of Tempe, and Town of Queen Creek.

Forensic Services is composed of nine units: toxicology, firearms, biology, controlled substances, crime scene, evidence processing, latent print, fingerprint identification, and quality assurance. It is an accredited American National Standards Institute National Accreditation Board Accredited Forensic Laboratory. During 2023, the Biology Unit members processed over 3,700 samples and prepared over 1,300 reports regarding scientific analyses.

Mesa Forensic Services Biology Unit is a National DNA Index System (NDIS) participant and has external audits, at least every two years, to demonstrate compliance with the Quality Assurance Standards established by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The laboratory intends to increase capacity by continuing to fund personnel hired from 15PBJA-22-GG-01595-DNAX, acquiring DNA analysis software licenses with associated training modules to support seven analysts, and purchasing annual upgrade and maintenance fees for the mixture interpretation and DNA analysis software applications.

The number of untested/not completed forensic biology/DNA cases on hand on December 31, 2023, was 423. Mesa Forensic Services expects to reduce this by approximately 10 percent to 380 by the end of the grant period.

The 2023 overall average turnaround time for DNA reports is 53 days, with violent crime being 54 days and nonviolent crime being 51 days. The 2024 monthly turnaround times have since increased, and it is the expectation to reduce the turnaround times to meet 2023 metrics averages.