Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants Program

The South Carolina Department of Public Safety (SCOPS) is the State Administrative Agency for the Forensic Science Formula Grant Program. Prior to FY2005, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) received the entirety of these funds.

SLED provides the criminal justice community with a full-service state of the art forensic laboratory and is tasked with analyzing samples submitted by law enforcement agencies and coroner's offices throughout the state.

To assist local forensic laboratories that provide forensic services to surrounding law enforcement agencies, SCOPS expanded the solicitation beginning in FY2005 to include all forensic services and labs eligible under the guidelines. The need to decrease the number of backlogged cases at SLED, as well as in local laboratories, is evidenced by the number of cases that have not been processed. As of January 23, 2017, SLED had a non-DNA backlog of 4,199 cases in eight separate forensic departments. When DNA cases were included, the backlog increased to 12,460. Based on the needs of the individual departments, overtime hours and/or equipment will be needed to reduce these backlogs. Local laboratories are also experiencing backlogs due to the number of cases they are receiving from law enforcement agencies in their areas. These laboratories typically have one or two chemists who are responsible for all forensic cases processed. With the increase in drug arrests in the regions where these facilities exist, more cases are being sent directly to these labs rather than SLED, resulting in additional backlogs. These labs strive to process all drug cases within a week to ten days, but this tum-around-time has now increased due to the influx of cases.

nca/ncf