FY 2018 DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction Program

The Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab (NSPCL) is a division of the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP). The NSPCL is responsible for analyzing evidential material associated with criminal investigations for all state and local law enforcement agencies in the state of Nebraska.

The NSPCL is accredited by the ASCLD-LAB-International Accreditation to ISO 17025. In addition, the NSPCL is mandated by State law to provide for DNA analysis on DNA samples collected from all convicted felony and certain qualifying misdemeanor offenders. The NSPCL is responsible for storing and maintaining the resultant profiles in the Nebraska Data Bank.

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

1. Reduce the backlog of forensic biology/DNA cases through the continued funding of three Forensic Scientist positions.

2. Maintain the current turnaround time and backlog-free status of DNA database samples through the continued funding of the Laboratory Scientist II.

3. Provide continuing education to DNA Forensic Scientists as required by the accrediting bodies.

4. To purchase additional extraction robots to allow each Forensic Scientist to have a dedicated instrument.

5. To purchase a plate centrifuge to allow for high capacity screening of untested Sexual Assault Kits using a DNA based Y-Screen method.

6. To fund an external FBI Quality Assurance Standards assessment for continued compliance with laboratory accreditation and NDIS requirements.

With the $458,866 made available through this project, the NSPCL expects to analyze 432 cases, reduce the turnaround time of forensic cases to less than three months, and maintain the no backlog status in the Database Section. This will be done while increasing the ability of the NSPCL to process samples routinely seen in casework today.

NCA/NCF