BJA FY24 Formula DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction (CEBR) Program

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s (CMPD) Crime Laboratory is accredited by the American National Standards Institute National Accreditation Board and is comprised of five specialized sections that provide state of the art forensic services for the CMPD in addition to state and federal law enforcement agencies in Mecklenburg County.

With the success of DNA in solving violent and property crimes, the number of cases submitted to the CMPD’s Crime Laboratory for DNA testing has increased to a quantity that cannot be managed with the current number of city of Charlotte allotted positions. The CMPD is seeking funding to maintain four current federally funded positions and outsource 38 backlogged sexual assault kits to a private lab for DNA testing.

The CMPD proposes to fund three full-time DNA analyst positions in addition to one full-time Crime Lab Technician position. Due to the CMPD having a limited budget for personnel, without this funding the lab would be unable to retain these positions. In the sexual assault kit category of DNA analysis, the CMPD is working to sustain and expand its “forklift” approach, to test all sexual assault kits (SAKs) entered into the system. The crime lab has implemented a direct to DNA approach and has further streamlined the process by having support staff inventory and cut SAK’s. This process allows the DNA analyst to take the samples directly to extraction which is the first step of the DNA testing process.

Funding these four positions will allow the CMPD to accomplish their goals of reducing the backlog of forensic biology/DNA cases and maintaining the current lab capacities. The CMPD will achieve these goals by having the Crime Lab Technician alleviate some of the responsibilities normally performed by the DNA Analyst. This will allow the DNA Analyst to process more cases and to focus on the bottlenecks occurring within the DNA process. Additionally, funds will be used to accomplish the goal to outsource 38 backlogged sexual assault kits to a private lab for testing.