DPS: Budget Cuts Cause DNA Backlog
Crime Lab Saw Nearly 70 Percent Decrease In Funding For FY 2008-2009
POSTED: 6:07 pm MST August 20,
2009
UPDATED: 12:56 pm MST August 21,
2009
PHOENIX -- Budget cuts have left more than 8,000 DNA samples unentered into a state DNA database, which has made it more difficult to identify and arrest some suspects, crime lab officials said.In one case, a man accused of the 2008 sexual assault a 14-year-old girl in a water retention canal at 127th Avenue and Via Camille could have been arrested sooner, officials said.El Mirage Assistant Police Chief Bill Louis arrested the suspect, 20-year-old Oscar Gonzales, on Tuesday after a 19-month hunt.If not for the backlog, it's “likely he would have been arrested earlier,” Arizona Department of Public Safety Crime Lab Superintendent Todd Griffith said.Starting in 2008, Arizona began collecting DNA samples when they are arrested for serious felonies.Gonzales was arrested for burglary in November 2008, but his sample was not entered into the state’s DNA database until May 2009.The crime lab saw its budget for fiscal year 2008-2009 for entering samples from arrested felons drop from $980,000 to $300,000 -- nearly a 70 percent decrease, Griffith said."We feel that we're doing the best possible job we can getting the violent crimes (entered into the DNA database), but it does mean that we have a backlog, primarily in nonviolent crimes. Burglaries and those kinds of things,” he said.Griffith said he recently received a federal stimulus grant that should help speed up the process.In the meantime, Valley police agencies and crime victims will have to wait longer for justice."It does add to the frustration of trying to solve a case like this, but that's the reality of what it is,” Louis said.
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- May 12, 2009: Crime Lab Has Idea For Efficiency
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