Editorial: Put priority on ending backlog at crime lab
Sheboygan Press
January 24, 2007
Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is finding it will take longer than he anticipated and harder to fix the backlog of cases at the State Crime Laboratory.
We're not surprised, since the backlog didn't occur overnight. Van Hollen inherited the more than 1,700 pending cases when he took over as attorney general from Peg Lautenschlager.
The backlog was one of the key issues in the campaign and Van Hollen may have been overly optimistic by promising to quickly solve the problem. He now says that even with no new cases coming into the crime lab, it would take 20 months to clear up the more than 1,700 cases pending.
Unfortunately, the state doesn't have the luxury of stopping the clock and tackling the backlog.
Much of the evidence involves DNA, which often is crucial to linking a defendant to a crime. But this is the most challenging and time-consuming analysis a crime lab does.
Police and prosecutors need an efficient crime lab to help them make their case and put criminals behind bars. The volume of evidence they collect and send in for analysis will only continue to rise.
But this is one of the problems that exacerbates the backlog.
But, a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article noted that other states with similar backlogs are limiting the number of DNA tests in a case.
This is perhaps one solution Wisconsin could try.
Van Hollen, who had the support of many law enforcement officials and organizations, can work with these supporters to use greater discretion in how much evidence is sent for analysis. The upside for law enforcement and prosecutors is a quicker turnaround in evidence analysis.
But it will take more than good working relationship between the state and local law enforcement.
The bottom line is it will take people and money to solve the backlog. Gov. Doyle has already promised to add 15 DNA analysts, and he must stick by it. The Legislature, too, must realistically look at increasing the budget for the crime lab is it means reducing the time it takes to get crime-scene evidence tested and returned to prosecutors.
None of this will happen overnight, but justice demands that the Van Hollen, the government and the Legislature tackle the crime lab backlog as quickly as possible.