The Backup and Needs Assessment in US Crime Labs
In 2003, research sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics began to uncover an overall picture of what kinds of demands our publicly funded crime labs are facing. The Census of Publicly Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories has since retained its research grant to produce a second report due out in the next few months.
The first Census report revealed the most frequent submission for forensic laboratory processing the identification of controlled substances. Add these requests to the submissions of toxicological samples and these two categories make up about 65% of the overall submissions to crime labs for processing. It seems highly doubtful that these types of submissions will wane in popularity given the trends in drug arrests and in the monitoring of probationers and parolees, among other things. In fact, the need for these services is on the increase which I suspect the latest Census will give confirmation.
This is good news for those pursuing careers in forensic toxicology, and reports such as these may offer leverage to laboratories lobbying for additional funding. For example, the first Census asked respondent laboratories to retrospectively estimate the number of Full-Time Employees (FTEs) needed such that all submissions would have a 30-day turnaround in 2002. Nationally, it would take over 1,900 more FTEs to fill this need at a cost of around $70.2 million. Remember that this only covers publicly funded crime labs the overall picture for the growth of the industry is vastly greater. This gives much credence to reports such as one from the Department of Labor suggesting that the growth rate in forensic science technicians is projected to outstrip all other scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical positions in the United States through 2014.
But what the effects of the current crunch at the individual level remains hidden. I want to pose a question to this forum what kind of issues have you been facing due to backlogged submissions and personnel shortages? The Census has done wonders in terms of uncovering numbers and trends but the human element can enlighten us just the same. Please share!
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