Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul released the 2022 Annual Report for the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Division of Forensic Sciences (DFS) crime laboratories late last week. While originally scheduled to be released earlier in 2023, the report was delayed so internal results could be compared with data for other forensic laboratories that are part of Project FORESIGHT.
West Virginia University’s (WVU) Project FORESIGHT is a business-guided self-evaluation of forensic science laboratories across the globe. The participating laboratories represent metro, regional, state and national agencies. Faculty from the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics analyze the submitted data from the crime laboratories to identify trends across laboratories and performance of individual laboratories. In 2022, approximately 200 laboratories and laboratory systems submitted their data to Project FORESIGHT.
According to the new report, the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratories found that they had faster median turnaround times than those reported in Project FORESIGHT for: DNA, DNA databank, controlled substances, trace evidence and latent prints.
Division turnaround time
The DFS employes over 190 people across three forensic crime laboratories, located in Madison, Milwaukee and Wausau. Overall, the team worked on 9,297 case submissions in 2022—the same as 2021 and up slightly from 2020. Controlled substance cases make up nearly half the case submissions (42%), followed by motor vehicle at 13% and Weapons and Sexual Assaults tied for third at 9%.
With 4,360 controlled substance cases, median turnaround time was recorded at 65 days, as opposed to Project FORESIGHT’s 71-day median turnaround time. The number of 2022 cases was slightly less than 2021, but still more than 2020.
Meanwhile, DNA analysis median turnaround times have dropped below pre-pandemic levels, even though DFS continues to work through submissions of evidence from court cases that accumulated during the pandemic. In 2022, the DFS crime labs recorded a 61-day turnaround time for the 4,347 cases that involved DNA analysis work—of which 27% were sexual assault cases. Project FORESIGHT has the median turnaround time for DNA analysis at 134 days.
A turnaround time of 51 days compared with Project FORESIGHT’s 70 days was recorded for the latent print section, which experienced about a 14% case submission decline from 2021.
The DNA Databank Unit mean and median turnaround time represents the period of time from when a reference DNA sample is received to when it is uploaded into CODIS. For 22,195 cases, DFS completed 18,692 CODIS uploads in 26 days—less than the reported national average of 59.
DFS says its number may decrease even less in 2023 as the lab system implements a new LIMS that is expected to increase productivity by allowing electronic submission of paperwork associated with reference DNA samples, automating data entry into the criminal history database and automating sample processing.
Monies and personnel
The new LIMS is part of a series of investments and awards given to DFS in the last few years. The crime lab system was the recipient of two federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) awards totaling about $12 million for equipment—including new equipment for the toxicology units that can detect additional synthetic drugs—technology, supplies, employees and outsourcing to return to pre-pandemic processing levels and further handle the demands of the COVID-19-created backlog.
Additionally, a new Southeast Regional Crime Laboratory will break ground soon on the Medical College of Wisconsin campus. The new lab will be located in the same facility as the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management.
“DFS has outgrown the space currently used and the new space will be better suited to adapting workflows to accommodate evolving needs of the criminal justice system as well as continued incorporation of scientific innovation,” said the DFS in a statement.
Lastly, the Wisconsin Identity Resolution Team (WiscIR) began outsourcing cases for forensic investigative genetic genealogy in 2022. To date, 33 cases have been outsourced—14 of which have been solved through the FIGG investigative lead.
The report is not all good news though. Last year, DFS implemented productivity metrics for all units. The metrics were used to evaluate performance and calculate projected outputs for each unit based on the number of fully trained staff. When assessing projected outputs and actual outputs, the report says DFS is understaffed in three units—DNA Analysis, Firearms and Toolmarks, and Toxicology. However, the legislature approved significantly fewer positions than Wisconsin DOJ requested in recent state budgets.