POLICE LAB BACKLOG LESSENING

Efforts To Get Faster Returns Of Evidence Paying Off

The evidence backlog that has plagued the state's crime labs for years
appears to be diminishing after a series of efforts to improve the system.

The Daviess County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has noticed a
difference with new case submissions being returned to prosecutors more
efficiently, but there are still glitches in the system, and some older
cases remain in limbo, said Commonwealth's Attorney Jay Wethington.

"It's a whole lot better," Wethington said. "We're hoping to ease this
problem."

The effort to reduce the backlog at the state's six crime labs has included
help from the legislature to increase the lab's funding and staffing, and
5,200 cases were outsourced to private labs in a one-time effort. Now, labs
are assisted by a statewide computer system, which informs technicians
which cases have already ended with a plea. Labs have also been sharing
more cases to keep a constant flow of work at each facility.

The results have yielded many improvements that should shorten the length
of time spent between a defendant's arrest and the outcome of the case.
Typically, if a drug case takes longer than six months to resolve, a
defendant's case must either be dismissed or the defendant must be released
on bond. Cases are not dismissed, and often the people released on bond
would otherwise not be considered candidates for pretrial release.

In Daviess County, felony criminal cases have spiked in recent years, going
from 430 indictments during 2000 to 605 indictments during 2003. The
increase is largely attributed to crimes associated with the trafficking
and production of methamphetamine.

In December, before the efforts began to reduce the backlog, a wait of six
months to a year was common for a test of crack cocaine or meth. Test
results from the multiple components of meth labs could take up to two years.

The state lab backlog was identified as a high priority of Gov. Ernie
Fletcher, who was sworn into office in December. During that month, Lt.
Gov. Steve Pence announced that, if the labs didn't reduce the backlog of
drug cases, they would be moved directly under the supervision of the
Justice Cabinet, which he also heads.

Since January, the state's crime labs have handled about 16,000 drug cases
and none of the new cases awaiting testing is older than 60 days, said Maj.
Sonny Cease, assistant director of the Kentucky State Police technical
services division.

The labs seem to be much quicker with new cases, but some of the previously
backlogged cases continue to await testing, Wethington said.

There continues to be other problems with the state labs involving multiple
cases under the same name of a defendant, Wethington said. Occasionally,
the evidence will be paired up with the right person but for the wrong
case, he said.

The prosecutor's office has not yet noticed the outcomes of any cases being
speeded up, but prosecutors and drug labs continue to work well together to
fix the remaining problems.

The continuing problems and solutions are topics that will be discussed at
the Kentucky Prosecutors Conference, which will be held in Owensboro during
August, Wethington said.