Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you concerning the funding of the National Forensic Science Improvement Act 2000. As you know, this piece of legislation was passed and signed into law last year but this year’s budget does not include the appropriate sum of funding to support this critical piece of legislation. We would greatly appreciate your support in providing the appropriate funding for this activity. I am currently the Director of the Forensic Identification Program at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. The primary impetus for the development of the forensic Identification program was that there is currently no program within the State of West Virginia, the United States, or throughout the world that specifically trains individuals and grants degrees in the area of forensic identification. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in response to this major training and educational void requested that West Virginia University (WVU) develop degree programs in Forensic Identification with areas of academic concentration in Latent Forensic Examiner, Forensic Chemistry, Forensic Biology, and Forensic Toxicology within the major of Forensic and Investigative Science and within the Biometric major include DNA/Molecular Biology. Therefore this program was created in December 1998 and graduated its first class on May 13, 2001. These new programs address the current and future need for individuals with increased scientific expertise in identification technologies and forensic science. They will be employed within the domestic law enforcement community, forensic laboratories, the FBI, and other federal agencies, as well as the biometric industry. The use of advanced identification and forensic science technology within the forensic community and security industry has created a significant need for scientifically trained persons with technical skills in the forensic discipline, computer science, engineering, biometrics, natural sciences, and criminalistics.Educational recommendations from a National Institute of Justice Technical Working Group (TWG) have been made requiring that identification specialists hired in the new millennium have the appropriate college background. The combination of these new educational recommendations and the significant advances in forensic identification and forensic science has created a significant demand for well-educated forensic specialists. Another issue that we are helping to solve is that of rural and small state’s justice system having access to forensic science. Small states like West Virginia have some unique problems in the development of our forensic laboratory capacity. The State of West Virginia has only one crime laboratory under the West Virginia State Police. Because of the geography of our state, bringing evidence to the crime lab involves considerable loss of time and manpower because of the significant travel distances necessary to get the evidence to our laboratory personnel. Because there is only one crime lab, cases have to be handled on the basis of time submitted and nature of the case, therefore, causing significant delays in the processing of other cases in need of speedy and professional resolution. We are currently developing plans for a major renovation and development of our current crime lab in South Charleston, West Virginia as well as the creation of a regional crime laboratory in North-central West Virginia. This would allow the state to be divided into two major portions providing quality and speedy response of evidence from the law enforcement community. The development of these facilities can only be accomplished through this type of legislation.The State of West Virginia cannot manage the creation and upgrade of our forensic facilities under the current state economics. There are many smaller rural states like West Virginia who need the support of this type of legislation to keep up with new technology and to develop crime lab and forensic facilities comparable to some larger states as well as facilities similar to the expansion currently underway by the FBI in the creation of their new crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. Like the federal government, the demands for processing scientific forensic evidence has grown and will continue to grow geometrically.

As technology has been developed for the processing of evidence, such as fingerprint and DNA evidence, crime labs have not been able to keep up with all of the innovations necessary to provide the public with timely and professional analysis of forensic evidence. We would greatly appreciate your support in providing the broad forensic community, including various disciplines such as medical examiners and various forensic specialists, with the most updated tools and facilities available. This will help convict the guilty and also provide swift exoneration of those persons wrongly accused. Scientists in the forensic community take a neutral stand in processing evidence gathered by state and local police agencies. They provide the highest quality impartial forensic processing which will greatly benefit the community at-large. This piece of legislation is critical to all forensic laboratories that provide the necessary technical processing from latent fingerprints to an expanded emphasis on digital evidence.Funding of this legislation will provide the support for these activities as well as the upgrading and development of professional forensic experts to help them maintain the highest quality of academic and scientific knowledge.

I thank you for your time and your support. This funding in support of the National Forensic Science Improvement Act will have a monumental impact on the forensic community and law enforcement for many years to come.