The U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice awarded $3.5 million in grants to improve forensic science and DNA testing in Washington, with part of that money going to the local Washington State Patrol Crime Lab.
All five of the state’s crime labs — Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, Marysville and Spokane — will receive a piece of the $2,347,180 awarded to Washington State Patrol, which will help reduce backlogs of DNA samples awaiting testing and improve toxicology testing related to the opioid epidemic, U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes announced Thursday.
Some of the grant money is also slated to go to county medical examiner’s offices throughout the state, according to a Department of Justice news release.
The Vancouver crime lab plans to use its portion to pay for new equipment and additional staff and renovate its space in downtown Vancouver to increase capacity, according to the news release. Some of the money will also be used to pay for employee training on the latest DNA advances and cover overtime costs.
“We are seeing how advanced DNA testing is leading to major breaks in long unsolved criminal investigations,” Hayes said in the announcement. “These Department of Justice grants will increase the capacity of WSP and will assist individual counties as they complete investigations. In addition, the funding for quicker turnaround of toxicology screening is critical to all of our efforts to address the impact that fentanyl and other dangerous drugs are having on Washington communities.”
Last year, the backlog of cases awaiting analysis increased from 3,168 to 4,562. The number of new cases submitted was 5,197, only slightly less than the number of new cases submitted in 2016, according to the news release. The turnaround time for requests increased from 83 days to 208 days.
Legislation passed in 2015 and 2016 increased the number of sexual assault kits that must be tested for DNA, with the results being entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA System database, the news release states.
Hayes said a second grant for $500,125 will go toward post-conviction testing of DNA that may exonerate wrongful convictions. A $250,000 grant will pay for additional staff and equipment for the Washington State Patrol Toxicology Laboratory, which has a backlog of more than 2,650 cases with a turnaround of 75 days.
According to Washington State Patrol’s website, the toxicology lab receives approximately 16,000 cases per year, with about 65 percent being impaired driving cases and 35 percent being coroner or medical examiner cases.
In February, Clark County Medical Examiner Dr. David Wickham said his office started noticing growing wait times for toxicology testing at the Seattle lab in the middle of last year. He said much of the increased workload at the toxicology lab appeared to be because of a rise in DUI cases after recreational marijuana was legalized.
