Forensics

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, Oct, 2005

Census of Publicly Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories, 2002 reports on the organization, functions, budget and expenditures, staffing, workload, and forensic backlog in the nation's more than 350 publicly funded crime laboratories. Additional topics include contracting with external labs, quality control, training, and research conducted by public forensic laboratories.

This publication compliments earlier data collections and statistical reports from the Bureau of Justice Statistics documenting similar issues in forensic DNA laboratories. Highlights include the following: 91 percent of outsourced requests were DNA-related, including nearly 13,000 casework requests and 205,000 convicted offender samples in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS); a typical laboratory in 2002 started the year with a backlog of about 390 requests, received 4,900 additional ones, and completed 4,600; and 41 percent of publicly funded laboratories in 2002 reported outsourcing one or more types of forensic services to private labs. This report is available online at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cpffc102.htm or by calling the National Criminal Justice Reference Service at 800-851-3420.