FY 2016 Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction Program

The Crime Laboratory, under the Office of the Santa Clara County District Attorney, is the local government laboratory responsible for the analysis of physical evidence collected within Santa Clara County. It serves over 13 criminal justice agencies, including the Sheriff and Medical Examiner’s Offices.

Crimes reported for Santa Clara County in calendar year 2014, included 4,676 violent crimes, 43,084 property crimes, 24,437 instances of larceny-theft, and 230 cases of arson. The Forensic Biology/DNA Unit of the crime laboratory is a full-service laboratory providing biological screening of evidence, autosomal STR analysis, and Y-STR analysis.

The SCCCL is currently facing budgetary constraints in California, which makes assistance through Federal funding essential to decrease the laboratory's backlog. Additionally, Assembly Bill l517 has caused an increase in DNA case submissions to analyze sexual assault evidence; therefore, we need funding to meet customer demands. We propose using the Federal award to achieve the following goals:
1. Increase the capacity of the DNA casework laboratory.
2. Reduce the number of samples awaiting analysis through decreased turnaround times and increased throughput.
The DNA casework laboratory requests funding through this award to purchase one (1) additional 3500 Genetic Analyzer and a multi-year service agreement, a ten (10) pack of GeneMapper ID-X v1.5 software licenses, and new centrifuges to replace older units. Through these purchases, we intend to increase capacity, increase sample throughput, decreased turnaround times, and reduce the DNA backlog.
nca/ncf