OCPD DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction

The Oklahoma City Police Forensic DNA laboratory continues to see an increase in case submission requests (approx. 10% growth since 2015) and is seeking to continue to streamline DNA laboratory work flow and capacity through upgraded equipment, additional software licenses and analyst overtime. Since the laboratory has already invested heavily in technology upgrades in recent years and additional staffing, funds are pursued this year with the goals of maximizing on this added capacity and technology to significantly eliminate the current backlog of casework, and upgrade several pieces of laboratory equipment to ensure continued efficiency as the DNA unit grows. Funds will also be utilized to assist in reducing laboratory bottlenecks such as screening, interpretation and technical review. Addition of another DNA extraction robot, will support capacity enhancement to reflect the staff growth in 2016 from 5 to 6 case working analysts. Another Maxwell 16 will allow a larger volume of samples to be processed. In the past analyst overtime has proved a successful method of rapidly reducing the backlog to manageable levels in a short period of time while maximizing the number and speed of profiles viable for CODIS entry. Since the laboratory is currently holding a high amount of backlogged cases, which are not expected to decrease until new analysts are trained, utilizing award funds to attempt to reduce the backlog rapidly within the award period is anticipated to assist positioning the laboratory in a good standing to move forward and maintain a proactive approach to turn around times on casework. This will also facilitate cases being worked faster and additional profiles being uploaded into CODIS. Since the lab has also seen growth in the number of samples requested for analysis, overtime will assist in allowing more cases to be processed as the larger volume cases are worked through the regular week. nca/ncf