Increasing Efficiency in Crime Laboratories
National Institute of Justice
The Issue
Television has given forensic science great public visibility, but provides viewers with the mistaken notion that crime laboratories provide results quickly. In truth, most crime laboratories have large case backlogs. In a census of publicly funded laboratories, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reported that crime laboratories had more than 500,000 backlogged requests for forensic services. And a recent National Institute of Justice (NIJ) report to Congress suggested that “crime laboratory backlogs cause significant delays in evidence being analyzed, resulting in investigation and court proceeding delays.”
Most crime laboratories report insufficient staffing as a reason for laboratory backlogs. Because these laboratories have limited budgets to hire additional staff, they employ a variety of strategies to manage backlogged cases. For example, some laboratories establish case acceptance policies to limit the number of cases they receive. Other labs have returned evidence to police agencies because they could not complete the analysis in a timely manner.