In 1993, after being appointed as Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation by then Governor Zell Miller, it quickly became clear to me that the greatest challenge we faced as an agency was providing adequate resources for the GBI Crime Lab.

What I discovered when I came back to Georgia after 23 years with the FBI was a local criminal justice system that was absolutely dependent on the work done by a state crime lab that was neither adequately funded nor staffed.

With increasing demands for quality, productivity, and timeliness but faced with inadequate resources to work with, I saw a formula for disaster. As a result, we set out to try to fix the problem in Georgia. In the process, we looked outside of our state for solutions.

In 1997, 11 state law enforcement agency representatives formed the State’s Coalition to discuss common challenges we were facing. Quickly, one common problem came to the forefront - the lack of resources in our crime labs. This issue has been the priority of this coalition ever since. We developed and fought for the concept of federal funding for our crime labs because this is a national issue and clearly affects the delivery of justice in our country. Ninety-five percent of all crime laboratory casework in this country is done at the state or local level. Currently, lack of resources is causing crime laboratories across the country to be bottlenecks for justice.

Now through organizations such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies, the States’ Coalition and the Consortium of Forensic Science Organizations, efforts have been made to address the resource problem in our labs at the federal level. Why is federal support so critical in solving the Crime Laboratory Crisis?

Crime labs have never played a more critical role in the administration of justice in our country. Because of new technological advances in ballistics identification and imaging, DNA, and many other areas, we are looking at a resource that can solve crimes, identify the offenders as well as the innocent and literally prevent our citizens from suffering at the hands of society’s most dangerous criminals. Our crime labs can provide timely leads that solve crimes every day. We must develop and take full advantage of that potential.

You may find this an unusual statement, but I am in total agreement with the National Association of Defense Attorneys when it comes to quality and accuracy of crime lab examinations and analysis. It is imperative that absolute accurate and quality examination standards must be applied to every piece of evidence analyzed. No corners can be cut regardless of backlogs. Without a strong sense of quality, public confidence in our labs is undermined and, in turn, so is justice.

Because of GBI’s emphasis on quality, peer review of cases and assurance that the work is right, our case backlog exploded to over 35,000 cases in 1999. Some cases were taking as much as 6 - 8 months to complete. Because some suspects waited in jails for lab reports to complete, justice could not be served; however, we could not compromise quality for expediency. Quality is a cost of doing business in forensics and the citizens of our country deserve nothing less.

Why is this a Federal Issue?

The timely administration of justice demands it. The work being done by crime lab scientists everyday can have the impact of opening or closing a cell door forever. This work must be done with perfection each and every time. Victims of violent crime deserve the timely application of appropriate forensic resources. Until that happens, the closure they seek to the horror of being victimized is unfairly delayed. Falsely accused suspects deserve to be cleared with all due speed. Imagine the horror of falsely being accused of a rape or other sexual offense while at the same time knowing you could be cleared if evidence submitted to a crime lab was expeditiously processed. Because the federal government has made a commitment to strong drug enforcement. Federal moneys pour into state and local drug enforcement programs but who works the evidence in those cases? Forty to fifty percent of crime analyses relates to drug identification. The federal government has recognized the importance of such programs as DNA by supporting the CODIS program through the FBI – creating a DNA database available for nationwide access. Large amounts of federal money have been spent on the law enforcement side, providing more police officers for local agencies. We totally agree that this is vital but you must also consider who works the increasing numbers of cases submitted by these additional police officers. The funding will provide support in areas that tailor to the needs of state and local laboratories:

Equipment
Forensic Education/Training
Laboratory Information Management Systems
Accreditation/Quality Assurance Programs
Laboratory Facility Improvements
Personnel Enhancements

For the dollars spent, the return is tremendous. Justice is better served; officers have the tools to identify, arrest and convict suspects; and the innocent are set free in a timely manner.

In closing, we look back at the words of our Constitution that calls for government’s role in insuring domestic tranquillity. In forensic science and our crime laboratories, you have the tools to insure that justice is properly served; that the innocent are set free and the guilty identified and convicted. Never before have we been able to offer so much return from such a small investment. I encourage your support of full funding of the National Forensics Sciences Improvement Act.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this issue today.