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Crime Lab ready to take quicker bite out of crime

Even before I became Attorney General, I knew that there was nothing more I could do to promote public safety and support local law enforcement than getting rid of the enormous DNA backlog at Wisconsin’s Crime Laboratory.

Just 18 months ago, the Wisconsin Crime Lab was awash in an ever-increasing backlog. When I took office, cases were coming in twice as fast as they were being worked. This math didn’t add up—the impact was that cases that could be solved with modern technology remained unsolved.

Recently the department marked two milestones showing great progress in this effort to promptly process DNA cases.

As of the end of May, the backlog that had been growing out of control actually shrunk by almost 150 cases since I took office. By increasing efficiency, we are keeping up with incoming cases and then some.

In May, as well, the Crime Lab completed 321 DNA cases. This is more than any other month in the history of the State Crime Lab. Remarkably, it is more than three times what was being done during an average month in 2006. While this is great news and a definite milestone in our plans to actively assist and manage the Crime Lab to eliminate the DNA backlog, all this progress was made while Wisconsin’s newest DNA analysts were still completing their training.

We recently marked completion of the new analysts’ year-long training. I was very proud to welcome Wisconsin’s newest, certified, trained and prepared-to-go-to work DNA analysts to the active fight against crime.

Even better news for Wisconsin taxpayers is that federal grant dollars paid for this year-long training program. To my knowledge, no state has ever embarked on such an ambitious effort to hire and train more than two-dozen new analysts. While we were training these analysts, senior Crime Lab analysts were able to continue working on cases virtually uninterrupted by training responsibilities. Progress continued.

Importantly, all the work these analysts do and all the cases they work are at the request of local police and sheriff’s departments and Wisconsin’s district attorneys—front-line crime fighters.

While many might see backlog numbers, intake cases and cases worked, increased use and efficiency of laboratory robotics, and new analysts and increased lab space as mere statistics, what I see are the people and victims of crime that law enforcement all over our great state are working night and day to bring justice to.

The Department of Justice is duty bound to assist law enforcement fight crime in ways they cannot alone. Progress at the Crime Lab is progress in the fight against Wisconsin crime. It is good news.

J.B. Van Hollen is Wisconsin’s attorney general; phone (608) 266-1221 or write to him at: Wisconsin Department of Justice, P.O. Box 7857, Madison, WI 53707-7857.