FY 2015 DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction Program - Arizona Department of Public Safety

In order to address budget issues, hiring freezes, and a continued volume of DNA submissions which require the agency to do more with less, the AZ DPS SAB has implemented workflows involving robotics and streamlined processes and is looking to expand that in the future. Therefore, the Federal funding from the twenty-four months period of this grant request would be
utilized to accomplish the following goals:
• Continue to fund a casework lab technician and two database lab technicians previously hired and funded under the FY14 grant in order to keep DNA casework and database analysts free to concentrate on sample processing
• Fund supplies for the robotics system currently in use in order to deal with the expanded demand due to the increased utilization of the system. With the additional processes being brought online
in the sex assault and property crimes units as well as in processing known standards for all of DNA casework, additional supplies will be necessary. The current budget from the State will limit the amount of analyses that can be completed, so funding for additional supplies to handle the currently backlogged cases and enhanced capacity of the overall workflow will be critical.
• Purchase two Qiagen EZ1 robotics systems in order to further expand the robotics system currently in use. As the lab deals with rush samples and brings online trace property crime protocols, the current robotics platform will be taxed. The EZ1 is well suited to both of these types of casework and will allow us to add capacity without impacting current workflows.
• Fund supplies for the EZ1 system once it is online for the same reasons as outlined previously for the existing robotics system. • Fund supplies for downstream DNA analysis (i.e. Identifiler Plus, Y-Filer) as needed due to increased throughput of Y-screened cases using the new workflow for the same reasons as outlined previously for the robotics systems.
• Outsource samples and technical/administrative reviews in order to deal with backlogged property cases from our smaller regional labs that don’t have the capacity to fully implement some of the robotic platforms and workflows in use in the Central Lab.
• Fund overtime for review of outsourced samples to enable entry into CODIS.

nca/ncf.