Delaware's Coverdell Program - Improving Timeliness for the Division of Forensic Science

The Criminal Justice Council (CJC) is the applicant/fiscal agent for these funds. CJC proposes to utilize the grant funding of $71,530 for FY16 to fund Division of Forensic Science (DFS) agency to provide services in conjunction with the intent of the Coverdell funds.
The entirety (100%) of grant funds will be sub-awarded to provide services intended to: improve the quality and timeliness of forensic science and medical examiner services,eliminate backlogs in the analysis of general forensic evidence and/or train and employ forensic laboratory personnel to eliminate backlogs for a period of one year. Funds will not be used for the renovation or construction of any facilities. At this time, there is one state Division of Forensic Science (DFS) Office. For this reason it is inundated with cases and some agencies are beginning to contract with outside agencies for forensic analysis. Although the OCME maintains responsibility for entering cases into CODIS,the actual analysis is being contracted elsewhere.
The Division of Forensic Science is seeking $71,530.00 in the 2016 Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants Program which will be used to purchase a Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS) for the Forensic Chemistry Unit.
Utilizing the current DFS - Forensic Chemistry Unit Standard Operating Procedures and Policies, instrumentation, and data management, the turnaround time for processing casework samples from receipt of the sample from the submitting agency to final report is approximately 90 days. The goal of the FCU is a 60 day turnaround time from submission to final report. The purchase of this instrument will increase the efficiency of the DFS - Forensic Chemistry Unit by adding a fourth GC/MS and thus improving the current operation in regards to the average number of days between submission of casework samples and delivery of test results to the submitting agency. nca/ncf