Alameda County Sheriff's Office Crime Laboratory DNA Backlog Project

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) Crime Laboratory Forensic Biology Unit faces challenges, especially with increased demand of its casework services. The ACSO serves the County of Alameda, not including the city of Oakland; this area represents a population of approximately 1,200,000 people. The ACSO as well as its customers will benefit from the proposed project as the ACSO modernizes it laboratory information management system (LIMS); 2) decreases the backlog by outsourcing casework to Bode Technology; and increases capacity by training new staff and training and testing current analysts in new methods.

The purpose of this project is to increase sample capacity and casework turnaround time by supporting the ACSO’s long term objective in training and retaining analysts hired this year, and adopting new milestones with a LIMS.

The primary activities of this proposal are to outsource cases to reduce the current backlog; maintain support for an unfunded Crime Laboratory Technician to conduct validation studies, implement it into casework procedures, and to conduct quality control testing; and enhance the capabilities of the LIMS. The two goals of this award are to process crime scene samples for Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) entry and increase capacity to process crime scene samples for CODIS entry. Achievement of these goals will increase sample capacity, casework turnaround times, and workflow efficiency by outsourcing casework, supporting the ACSO’s LIMS to increase efficiency and casework throughput, and dedicating resources to a Crime Laboratory Technician. This approach will have a long-term sustaining effect on decreased turnaround times for sample processing, data analysis, and case reporting.