State of Nebraska - DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction Program

The Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab (NSPCL) is a division of the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP). The NSP 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 be responsible 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 for the following goals:

1. Reduce the backlog of forensic biology/DNA cases through the continued funding of an analyst.

2. Maintain the current turnaround time and backlog free status of DNA database samples through the continued funding of the laboratory technician and the purchase of supplies.

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

4. Increasing the capacity of the NSPCL by purchasing additional equipment (extraction robot) and to increase the efficiency of differential extractions by implementing an enzyme based process automated on a Tecan liquid handling system.

Because of the funding made available through this project, the NSPCL expects to analyze 144 cases and 1,000 database samples. The NSPCL expects to reduce the turnaround time of forensic cases to less than 3 months and maintain the no backlog status in the Database Section.

nca/ncf.