FY 2018 DNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction Program

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) is responsible for processing evidence for every law enforcement agency and medical examiner throughout 95 counties and 31 jurisdictions in Tennessee. If approved, this funding will allow the TBI to implement a 24-month project to address identified bottlenecks, reduce DNA casework/database backlogs, and improve current processes and workflows, thus ensuring on-going success.

The TBI’s Forensic Sciences Division (FSD) has successfully implemented similar projects since 2008, making steady improvements in processing DNA casework and database samples with the assistance of NIJ and other leveraged funding sources; however, current challenges and capacity limitations threaten on-going success in reducing backlogs including: an increase in turnaround time for DNA casework analysis, an increase in DNA database workload, limited extraction, amplification, and storage capabilities, and a need for training. nca/ncf