FY 2016 DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction Program

The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, the crime laboratory's parent organization, is expected to experience a year in which no new growth requests for positions will be approved for the projected FY 2016-17 Budget. As a result, our laboratory will not be able to hire additional needed DNA analysts using county funds during the upcoming fiscal year.
Violent crime cases continue to increase within Sacramento County despite an overall statewide reduction in violent crime. Violent crime has increased in the City of Sacramento in the last year by 25%. The primary challenge going forward is the additional workload created by testing rape kits from 2006-2010 plus all new sexual assault kits. It is a goal of the laboratory to continue screening and processing the remaining untested kits and all new kits and upload all eligible profiles into CODIS. Testing all new kits will add another 200 rape kits per year to our current workload alone. The Laboratory is experiencing an increase in rape kits by approximately 10% which equates to 20 kits per year.
Although the number of requests for forensic DNA analysis continues to increase, Sacramento County is not approving new growth requests which would provide the necessary staffing support to improve service levels and reduce backlog.
The goals of the grant are as follows:
Goal 1: Reduce/Improve the DNA casework turnaround time and increase case throughput
Goal 2: Reduce the DNA case backlog
Goal 3: Increase capacity in the crime laboratory's Biology Unit.
There are two primary objectives for this grant:
Objective 1A: Fund two DNA analysts responsible for analyzing evidence associated with designated crime cases, profiling samples, and uploading profiles into CODIS.
Objective 1B: Fund a Consultant to help perform the administrative review of DNA cases.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, Laboratory of Forensic Services expects to decrease the persistent backlog of older homicide and sexual assault cases by a minimum of 120 cases by dedicating the two grant-funded DNA analysts to these cases. The consultant will be used to perform administrative reviews; therefore, freeing up analysts to perform casework analysis. nca/ncf