Performance Improvement

Idaho State Police Forensic Services (ISPFS) provides forensic services for approximately 1.6 million people in the state of Idaho. The ISPFS provides services to 88 police agencies, 44 sheriff agencies, and all federal and state law enforcement agencies in the state of Idaho.

ISPFS currently has 373 latent print cases and 40 toxicology cases that are over the strategic turnaround time of 30 days for the laboratory. ISPFS has committed to the Idaho Courts and Legislature to work all forensic cases in less than a 30 day turnaround time. The scope of this project is to improve the quality and timeliness of forensic services in Idaho and to reduce the number of backlogged latent print and toxicology cases in the ISPFS laboratories.

The overall objectives of this grant are to 1) purchase a second Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) terminal to eliminate bottlenecks in the latent print discipline due to increased use of the ABIS tool in casework from more analysts working in the discipline;  2) implement a lean six sigma efficiency by purchasing an ABIS print server in the latent print laboratory to eliminate the need for the analysts to leave the laboratory and go to another agency department to print;  and 3) validate a new toxicology screening instrument to narrow down the classes of drugs needing confirmation on the LC/MS/MS in blood and urine samples. The project objectives will allow the latent print unit to function more efficiently by minimizing waiting time for ABIS terminal use, providing quicker and easier access to high quality latent print card printing, and ensuring that latent print examiners have immediate access to the tools they need to complete their work. The toxicology portion of this grant will allow more robust, quicker, and more informative screening of toxicology samples to decrease the overall turnaround time of the entire toxicology process.

nca/ncf