FY2015 DNA Capacity Enhancement

The LCCL is an ASCLD/LAB-International accredited laboratory. DNA has been in place in the laboratory since 1993. STR-CE technology has been in place since 2000, with one full time DNA Analyst conducting most/all of the DNA cases. The second full time DNA Analyst was also the Laboratory Director, Quality Manager, DNA Technical Reviewer, Training Manager and Crime Scene Analyst. The laboratory has been able to maintain this configuration for many years. Now that the laboratory is accredited under the international program, the amount of work required of the Quality Manager and Laboratory Director positions has greatly increased. In order to keep up with the work flow in DNA and the rest of the laboratory duties, the LCCL hired an additional person in October of 2012 to fill the position of DNA Analyst, using DNA grant funding. This second full time analyst has been trained and is currently analyzing DNA cases. The LCCL requests the funding for the DNA Analyst's salary, in order to continue her employment. These grant funds will support the DNA analyst's salary and benefits for approximately 1 year of the period of the grant (this will be less than 24 months because of the amount of the grant funds received).

The other portion of this analyst's salary will be funded using Lake County Crime Laboratory funds.

The following laboratories have agreed to provide some of their funding to the Lake County Crime Laboratory:
Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office: $20,000.
Columbus Police Department Crime Laboratory: $20,000.
Miami Valley Crime Laboratory: cannot provide any this year.
Hamilton County Crime Laboratory: $15,846.50

Our appropriation using UCR% violent crime is $18,668.55. This totals $74,515.05. {To bring our laboratory to $100K minimum allocation, the Ohio BCI laboratory would need to contribute $ 25,484.95 to the Lake County Crime Laboratory. The Ohio BCI laboratory did not agree to this} Six of Seven Ohio DNA laboratories have agreed to the above funding, with only Ohio BCI dissenting.

nca/ncf.