The Baltimore Police's Crime Lab Division Capability Expansion Program

The Baltimore Police Department’s Crime Laboratory (BPD-CL) is the agency section responsible for analyzing material evidence associated with criminal investigations for all local law enforcement agencies within the City of Baltimore performing, among other disciplines, serology screening with autosomal and YSTR DNA casework analysis. The City of Baltimore is facing budgetary constraints and State licensing requirements through the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, as well as, the new accreditation standards following their successful International Accreditation through Forensic Quality Services. This will increase the documentation and regulation required for all sample analysis. The Federal funding from this award will be used for the following goals:

1. The purchase of new equipment to expand analysis capabilities through instrumentation; more specifically the purchase of microscopes for each serologist; the purchase of CE Genetic Analyzers; and the purchase of routine Laboratory Equipment that it is outdated.

2. To have (9) crime lab analysts in the Forensic Biology Laboratory certified through the American Board of Criminalistics.

3. Continue to work toward the elimination of the forensic DNA case backlog through responsive outsourcing Serology and DNA casework. To continue to decrease the turnaround time for these analyses in response to the decrease in backlogged requests.

The BPD-CL can expect to eliminate equipment bottlenecks; which will update the laboratory’s current software and compatibility. This will ensure that BPD-CL will run more efficiently allowing a faster turnaround for analyses, free technicians for new cases, and improve the overall effectiveness of the laboratory. The BPD-CL can expect to handle at an approximate of 1,100 cases that will be processed, recorded, screened, and analyzed if funded under this application. If funded, BPD-CL will increase their work capacity by 20% regarding the average number of Forensic DNA samples analyzed per month, and the average number of forensic DNA/biology cases that are processed, recorded, screened, and analyzed. nca/ncf