This is collateral damage from the so called “CSI Effect”. If the public demands every possible forensic test be performed on every piece of evidence, regardless of if the experts think it’s probative or not, the public is going to have to pay for such testing. Testing isn’t cheap, and the State of Arizona simply can not foot the bill for everyone anymore.
Original article posted here.
State: Funding needed to avoid case backlog
by Lindsey Collom — Nov. 5, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
City officials across Arizona say they won’t pay the state for DNA testing and other crime-lab services because they are strapped for cash and believe the imposed fee is unconstitutional.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety was counting on collecting $2.5 million during this fiscal year from cities, towns and counties to provide them with forensic-evidence testing, which until now had been done for free.
Without that revenue stream, state officials say any vacated positions in the lab could go unfilled, deepening a case backlog and potentially delaying court cases. Until recently, the only other state charging for lab work had a backlog up to a year.
Now, only 4 percent of cases submitted to the crime lab in Arizona are more than 30 days old.
When a suspect in the “Chandler Rapist” case was arrested Jan. 12, it took the DPS less than 24 hours to match his DNA to samples found at three crime scenes. DPS officials said that because the program to collect lab fees from cities is new, it is unknown how much revenue will be collected.
“If we collect less than the $2.5 million in charges, we will have to entertain budget cuts, which would result in decreased service levels,” said Phil Case, DPS budget officer.
But city and town officials say they, too, are strapped financially and are unable to pay without hurting their basic services.
Consider:
• Police in Douglas, a border town in southeastern Arizona, owe about $23,000 in lab fees. To pay the DPS would mean Douglas police could not hire an officer or buy a squad car, Chief Alberto Melis said. The department has four vacancies.
• Casa Grande owes nearly $52,000, about the cost of a fully equipped patrol vehicle, Chief Robert Huddleston said.
• Sierra Vista police have been billed about $63,000. Chief Ken Kimmell said the only way to pay for the fees, “whether it’s $190,000 or $60,000, is to reduce our staffing, which really isn’t fair to our constituents.”
“For me to come up with this money, I’m going to have to do without something,” Melis said. “In a profession where 95 percent of your cost is personnel, I might not be able to hire somebody.”
Funding crunch
State lawmakers in June cut $7.8 million from DPS funding in a last-minute effort to pass a balanced budget. In exchange, legislators stipulated for the first time that the DPS had the discretion to charge police, sheriffs and prosecutors who use the state lab.
In an attempt to reduce the burden to city and county agencies, the DPS tapped into dollars from gang– and immigration-enforcement programs. The remaining $2.5 million has been split based on the cases agencies submitted to the lab in the budget year 2007-08, which ended June 30.
The actual agency cost for the DPS to process evidence from Casa Grande police in fiscal 2008 was about $288,000. The DPS initially prorated the city’s cost to about $161,000, which was later reduced to about $52,000. The Gilbert Police Department, which sent 2,253 cases to the state lab, owes about $115,000.
The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office sent in 1,115 cases and owes about $53,000.
Municipalities say it will be difficult to pay the reduced fee. The concern is not just for this budget year but years to come.
“Although DPS was able to lower the amount significantly, we certainly don’t anticipate that happening next year,” Huddleston said.
“The real challenge to come is going to be in the next fiscal year.”
Little recourse
The four DPS crime labs, which provide scientific analysis of evidence, crime-scene assistance and evidence storage, are expected to spend more than $20 million combined in the current fiscal year.
If agencies do not pay the $2.5 million, the DPS has little recourse.
Officials have assured the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, a voluntary membership organization of 90 incorporated municipalities, that they will continue to process cases even if municipalities do not pay.
“We don’t think we have a lot of options in that regard,” Case said.
“We would have to consider prioritizing the work of the agencies that pay while balancing this with public-safety needs.
“In other words, the work for an agency that didn’t pay would not grind to a complete halt, but it might slow somewhat.”
Adding to the lag would be the department’s potential inability to fill vacated positions.
State crime labs now process nearly double the amount of cases they received just six years ago. DPS records show agencies submitted 29,425 cases for testing in fiscal 1999–2000.
By fiscal 2006-07, that number had grown to 52,026.
The amount of evidence requiring blood/DNA testing had more than doubled since July 1999, to 4,435 from 2,194 cases. Submissions for toxicology testing also grew about 156 percent in the same period.
To meet the demand, crime-lab staffing has increased by more than 50 positions to 158 full-time slots.
As of Oct. 31, there were 10 vacancies for jobs including criminalist, lab tech and supervisor.
DPS officials expect the fee system to be permanent, or at the very least a multiyear feature.
Mississippi’s model
Mississippi is the only other state that charges for state-run crime-lab analysis.
The fee system has been in place since 1988 and, for most of that time, struggled with underfunding, lengthy backlogs and personnel shortages.
Part of the underfunding was officials’ inability to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid balances.
For years, the system annually generated less than $700,000, or half the fees assessed, according to Ken Winter, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police.
During that period, evidence processing took months, sometimes nearly a year. One police chief told the Associated Press it took “almost a year” for the state lab to process evidence in an attempted-poisoning case.
“It was hectic,” said Jim King, Metcalfe police chief.
The AP also quoted Henry McCullum, Jefferson Davis County sheriff, as saying the faster evidence is processed, the better it is for law enforcement.
“It helps us to pursue the case quicker and get it ready for trial,” McCullum said.
A $1 million budget increase in 2006 allowed officials to expand the lab by about 40 positions, nearly doubling the staff.
As of last month, 75 percent of requests for analysis were 90 days old, said Sam Howell, current director of Mississippi crime labs.
“Backlog is no longer an issue at the lab,” Howell said.
Neither is getting municipalities to pay up.
The lab now charges a flat fee of $50 per case. The exception is for DNA analysis, which costs $100.
Howell expects to generate about $1 million in fees this year.
Arizona labs may not fare as well.
Last month, Dale Wiebusch, legislative associate for Arizona League of Cities and Towns, sent an e-mail to city managers saying they shouldn’t pay the fees until constitutional issues can be settled.
Wiebusch said the law’s passage may have been unconstitutional because any state revenue hike must be approved by a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate. The same goes for the institution of any new state fee.
However, the bill that allowed the DPS to impose fees for forensic work had passed by one vote in both chambers.
Wiebusch said the league is researching the issue. “We like to figure out whether or not this is actually something that does require a two-thirds vote,” he said.
Lawmakers could repeal the section of session law dealing with the crime lab or simply “find a different funding mechanism,” Wiebusch said, “although they’re kind of running out of places to take money.”
For now, even without funds coming in, DPS officials “think that essentially we have a mandate to provide the service,” Case said. “If we have to ratchet down services, that could have an effect on cases.”
