FY 2017 DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction Program - Scottsdale Police Department Crime Laboratory

The Scottsdale Police Department Crime Laboratory is a local government agency that is responsible for analyzing evidential material associated with criminal investigations that occur within the City of Scottsdale, and the Salt River Indian Community.

The Scottsdale Police Department has a fully operational DNA casework unit within the forensic laboratory that is responsible for the screening of evidentiary items for biological evidence, the DNA analysis of biological evidence and the outsourcing of cases for DNA analysis.

As with most governmental entities, the Scottsdale Police Department Crime Laboratory is facing budgetary constraints but continues to focus on addressing the challenges associated with backlogged cases awaiting DNA analysis. Areas of focus for this grant proposal are improving turnaround time and to reduce the backlog by contracting validation services, software, and replacing equipment. By contracting out these services, it will allow current staff to focus on casework and becoming more efficient to accommodate the influx of sexual assault kits resulting from the test all policy established within the Police Department.

The Federal funding from this award will be used for the following goals:

1. Validation of QuanitiFiler Trio for optimal quantification of DNA samples.

2. Purchasing of probabilistic genotyping software and computers to analyze mixtures and provide statistical analysis.

3. Validation of the STRmix software used for probabilistic genotyping.

4. Replacement of a thermal cycler used for DNA amplification.

nca/ncf