Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2017, $1,672,810)
The Illinois State Police (ISP) provides forensic science services to approximately 1,200 law enforcement agencies located throughout the State of Illinois. The ISP forensic science laboratory system is comprised of six operational laboratories and a Research and Development Laboratory, which is responsible for providing forensic analysis of evidence in criminal cases for law enforcement agencies throughout the State of Illinois.
ISP maintains International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 17025 accreditation through the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB). Additionally, ISP DNA laboratories undergo external audits in accordance with the DNA Quality Assurance Standards (QAS) for Forensic DNA Testing Laboratories set by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
ISP will use various strategies to address the forensic biology and DNA backlogs. ISP proposes Federal funds be used to outsource forensic biology and DNA casework to an accredited contract laboratory, to pay overtime to ISP staff directly engaged in the processing, recording, screening and analyzing forensic biology and DNA evidence. Federal funds will also be used to purchase critical supplies for the analysis of forensic biology and DNA evidence.
The overtime proposed will be issued in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Financial Guide.
The use of these Federal funds will serve to improve and enhance the analytical processing capacity and DNA throughput of the ISP forensic science laboratory system. The implementation of the proposed plan will accomplish the following:
- Improve forensic biology and DNA analysis capacity of the ISP forensic DNA laboratories.
- Reduce the ISP forensic biology and DNA case backlog, and/or the turnaround time.
nca/ncf