BACKLOGGED CRIME LAB NEEDS FUNDING

Our position: An overburdened State Police crime lab slows down the entire
criminal justice system.

One thing we can't afford to cut in tight economic times is public safety.
Unfortunately, inadequate funding of the Indiana State Police crime lab is
already having disastrous consequences: a huge backlog of DNA samples to be
analyzed.

DNA, a technology that has proven superior to photographs and fingerprints
in proving identification, is almost infallible. The genetic DNA
fingerprint can either identify or eliminate a crime suspect with 99.9
percent certainty.

The legislature must find money to reduce the current backlog of more than
5,200 cases at four State Police labs, including 690 DNA samples that could
determine the difference between guilt and innocence in violent-crime cases
such as murder, rape and robbery.

A bill that would have provided $8 million to the labs by increasing
traffic ticket fines by $15 died in the Senate Finance Committee. The money
was a reasonable request by Gov. Frank O'Bannon's administration to hire
more workers at labs in Evansville, Fort Wayne, Lowell and Indianapolis.

This funding would help the crime labs clear out backlogged firearm,
fingerprint and drug cases as well. But helping them catch up on DNA
testing would have the most immediate impact on overburdened court dockets.

An article in the Feb. 17 Star told the story of an apparent rape victim
who has been waiting on the results of a DNA test from the State Police
crime lab for nine months while the potential suspect remains free.

In another case, a DNA test was completed by the crime lab just a day
before the statute of limitations ran out, helping identify a suspect in a
five-year-old Carmel burglary case.

The General Assembly faces difficult spending choices in tight economic
times. But failing to properly fund the crime lab hurts the entire criminal
justice system. The backlog not only makes suspect identification less
certain, it delays trials in older cases while court dockets continue to
grow with new ones.

Conversely, eliminating the backlog will increase efficiency and save money
in the long run. The adage definitely applies: Justice delayed is justice
denied.