Enhancement of the Forensic Biology Lab of the York County Sheriff's Office

The York County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Biology Laboratory (YCSO-FBL) is responsible for analyzing evidentiary material associated with criminal investigations for 7 agencies within York County, South Carolina. The lab became accredited in 2014 and has seen an increase in submissions since the lab opened in June 2014.

As with most governmental entities, the YCSO-FBL is facing budgetary constraints, but continues to focus on addressing the challenges associated with a backlog of DNA cases awaiting analysis. By processing cases through the use of additional software and equipment, the backlog will experience over a reduction. The Federal funding from this award will be used for the following goals:

1. Purchase of Qiagen EZ1-XL and one year service maintenance
2. Purchase of 2 Surface Pro 3s
3. Purchase of STRmix software and one year service maintenance
4. Purchase of Forensic Advantage Batching Software and one year service maintenance

The lab expects to see a decrease in turnaround time and backlog for cases with the addition of the above listed equipment and software programs. In addition, STRmix expert forensic software will greatly enhance both the interpretive and statistical DNA capabilities as this continuous approach allows for statistics to be applied to complex DNA results that are not able to be interpreted.

nca/ncf.