As Requests for DNA Tests Soar, So Do Lab Backlogs

A DNA match, the investigative break that has solved countless cases, gave Montgomery County detectives the evidence they needed last year to charge a convicted felon with raping a woman in 1993.

But the county's backlogged DNA lab couldn't produce the detailed analysis in time for the trial, prompting a judge to block prosecutors from using the evidence. The state was forced to drop its case early this year, and the suspect -- who was accused of attacking a woman in her back yard in Silver Spring -- walked free.

At crime labs in Montgomery and across the region, soaring demand for DNA analysis and a dearth of trained scientists have led to increasingly unmanageable backlogs, authorities say. Large numbers of cases have been delayed and, in rare instances, suspects accused of violent crimes have been released without trial.

At the Montgomery lab, staff turnover has contributed to unprecedented backlogs. In Prince George's County, a shortage of forensic scientists recently halted in-house DNA testing, forcing the county to turn to private labs. In one recent case in the county, a man was jailed for six months on charges of assaulting a child before long-delayed DNA results helped prove his innocence. About a quarter of the samples submitted last year were never tested.

Turnover and bureaucratic delays in the District have stalled plans for the police department to open its own lab. The statewide crime labs in Maryland and Virginia -- whose lab handles most local cases -- have also struggled with scarce resources and a growing backlog.

The problem, experts say, stems in part from a public fascination with DNA profiling, which revolutionized crime fighting when it was introduced two decades ago. As the demand for DNA evidence increases, fueled by juror expectations formed by such television shows as "CSI," government labs have been forced to outsource work to private labs. Flush with business, the private facilities also lure scientists away from the public labs, reducing their ability to handle the growing backlogs.

"It's a universal problem. The issue is that this is a business where the demand is totally out of our control, yet we don't have the ability to keep up," said Bill Marbaker, president of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, a national nonprofit organization.

About 2.7 million cases poured into the country's more than 350 publicly funded crime labs in 2002, the latest year for which national data are available, according to the Justice Department. The federal, state and local labs reported a backlog of 500,000 requests for forensic analysis, which would take 1,900 full-time employees to address, the report concluded. The Justice Department defines a case as backlogged if it remains in the lab 30 days or more without a report or analysis.

"I have not yet found a single lab director that doesn't have a backlog and a need for a staff increase of up to 10, 20 or 30 percent," Marbaker said.

The FBI, which for years conducted DNA tests for the D.C. police, began farming out that work after Sept. 11, 2001. The federal agency said the growing caseload at its lab, which now makes terrorism and counterintelligence investigations its top priorities, prevented it from processing the police department's evidence.

From 2003 to 2006, the FBI spent $1.1 million outsourcing D.C. cases, according to congressional testimony by Joseph A. DiZinno, assistant director of the FBI's lab. D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier told the city's public safety committee in May that half of the future D.C. lab's 20 slots are filled. She said she hopes the lab will be running at full capacity by next year.

The backlog at Montgomery's lab, which has five scientists, has grown steadily since 2002 and stands at about 450 cases, about 65 percent of the cases analyzed last year. One of the lab's veteran scientists resigned last year, and another was on maternity leave, contributing to the backlog. Capt. Russell Hamill, who oversees the lab, said that it is running at near capacity and that recently acquired technology is expected to help.