FY2024 Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants Program - Formula

South Dakota intends to utilize the award to help with the foundation of improving the lab services, maintaining, and improving our section specific and overall lab turn around times, maintaining education requirements, and ensuring the continued use of lab equipment through maintenance agreements. The SDFL provides services to all law enforcement in South Dakota, including local, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement. This year, our laboratory hopes to utilize this award to obtain additional equipment to include a specialized crime lite for the latent print section that enables forensic examiners to screen evidence items quickly and efficiently for fingerprints. The SDFL would like to spend the funding to purchase a replacement comparison microscope in the firearms section to prepare for the new FTE awarded to the SDFL through the state legislature. These funds would support yearly supply purchases for equipment in the fingerprint section and also would support purchasing replacement workstation computers for examiners. Finally, Coverdell funding would be used for the annual maintenance for our BEAST LIMS system, latent print instrumentation, firearms scopes and continuing education registration costs.