We hope you’ll take time to learn what you can about this issue, which has a huge effect on law enforcement and criminal justice in the U.S.. We are all endangered by backlogs.
As you take this quiz, please keep in mind that these numbers don’t just represent lab tests and paperwork. Each case represents human beings: those waiting for results from labs include victims of crime and their families, persons accused of crimes, law enforcement investigators, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and others. In many ways, we all await the results of these tests.
Answers and additional information can be found at the end of the quiz.
1) Crime labs in the U.S. have agreed on a meaning for the term “backlog” and how backlogs are to be measured.
a) True
b) False
2) Because it is a newer technology and robotics can be used for portions of the procedure, DNA testing has the lowest level of backlogs.
a) True
b) False
3) According to a March, 2009 report issued by Human Rights Watch, the combined backlog of untested DNA rape evidence kits in storage in Los Angeles County as of February, 2009 numbered
a) 2749
b) 4727
c) 5193
d) 12,669
4) A study by the State University of New York at Albany found that this percentage of labs had sufficient personnel to deal with their workloads:
a) 21%
b) 32%
c) 48%
d) 57%
5) In 2005, the Bureau of Justice Statistics conducted a survey of public labs. The number of cases those labs received for testing in one year was approximately
a) 1.1 million
b) 1.8 million
c) 2.2 million
d) 2.7 million
6) Of the number of cases received in question #5 above, by the end of 2005, how many had been not tested 30 days or more after they came into the lab?
a) 116,000
b) 287,000
c) 359,000
d) 411,000
7) This number was up what percentage from a similar survey in 2002?
a) 5%
b) 12%
c) 24%
d) 48%
8 ) The 2005 study showed that federal crime labs (including the FBI lab) received highest number of cases.
a) True
b) False
9) An innocent person could be held in jail while a crime lab took six months or more to test evidence.
a) True
b) False
10) A person could be free and committing murders while police waited for a lab to test evidence from an earlier crime.
a) True
b) False
11) Sometimes the statute of limitations runs out before evidence is tested.
a) True
b) False
12) Which of the following contribute to backlogs?
a) facilities that are too small or outdated in design
b) lack of equipment needed to perform test
c) shortage of trained staff
d) all of the above
Answers:
1) Crime labs in the U.S. have agreed on a meaning for the term “backlog” and how backlogs are to be measured.
a) True
b) False
There is no consistency in definition or time frame. Some labs will not consider a case backlogged until it is held 90 days or more. Many other time frames are used.
Some labs will say a case is not backlogged if it is tested, even if the results of the examination are not yet uploaded to CODIS, NIBIN, IAFIS, NAMUS or other databases. This is important because that is often the step that resolves an investigation or leads to an arrest. The process of getting that information into those systems often creates separate backlogs.
Some labs take material untested “off the books” for reasons other than completion of tests. Some limit the number of cases they will accept from each jurisdiction they serve, so they may not be backlogged at the lab itself, but still sit in evidence storage, left untested because of workflow problems.
There are also backlogs on the other side of the matching process — in testing and uploading samples from those in prison who are required to give DNA samples, and from fingerprints taken at jails and prisons. These are not always counted in backlog studies, which sometimes look at case evidence only.
2) Because it is a newer technology and robotics can be used for portions of the procedure, DNA testing has the lowest level of backlogs.
a) True
b) False
Because of the tremendous increase in demand for this type of testing, the expense of the testing, as well as limitations on hiring (even with grants, which often limit the period of employment funded), training, and retaining analysts, DNA testing is — while by no means the only type of backlog — often the area where backlogs are the greatest.
3) According to a March, 2009 report issued by Human Rights Watch, the combined backlog of untested DNA rape evidence kits in storage in Los Angeles County as of February, 2009 numbered
a) 2749
b) 4727
c) 5193
d) 12,669
Answer c) is the number of kits in the LAPD backlog, b) the number in the LA County Sheriff’s Department backlog, and a) is the number in other jurisdictions in the county.
Los Angeles is far from the only jurisdiction in the U.S. where such backlogs exist, and rape cases are not the only type of case backlogged. Throughout the U.S., murder cases, missing persons/unidentified remains, assaults, burglaries and other cases are also backlogged.
4) A study by the State University of New York at Albany found that this percentage of labs had sufficient personnel to deal with their workloads:
a) 21%
b) 32%
c) 48%
d) 57%
5) In 2005, the Bureau of Justice Statistics conducted a survey of public labs. The number of cases those labs received for testing in one year was approximately
a) 1.1 million
b) 1.8 million
c) 2.2 million
d) 2.7 million
6) Of the number of cases received in question #5 above, by the end of 2005, how many had been not tested 30 days or more after they came into the lab?
a) 116,000
b) 287,000
c) 359,000
d) 411,000
7) This number was up what percentage from a similar survey in 2002?
a) 5%
b) 12%
c) 24%
d) 48%
8 ) The 2005 study showed that federal crime labs (including the FBI lab) received highest number of cases.
a) True
b) False
Federal labs received the fewest cases.
9) An innocent person could be held in jail while a crime lab took six months or more to test evidence.
a) True
b) False
The CLP News has carried links to a number of news stories over the past five years that reflect the problems mentioned in questions 9-12. To receive this weekly email free of charge, send a blank email message to:
CLPNews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
10) A person could be free and committing new crimes while police waited for a lab to test evidence.
a) True
b) False
11) Sometimes the statute of limitations runs out before evidence is tested.
a) True
b) False
12) Which of the following contribute to backlogs?
a) facilities that are too small or outdated in design
b) lack of equipment needed to perform test
c) shortage of trained staff
d) all of the above
Other factors also affect backlogs, including training of those who gather evidence, communications with district attorneys, time analysts spend away from the lab testifying, and more.
Sources of Information for This Post Include
“Census of Publicly Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories, 2002″ (NCJ-207205), by BJS statistician Matthew J. Hickman and Joseph L. Peterson, of the University of Illinois, Chicago. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics
“Census of Publicly Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories, 2005″, (NCJ 222181), by BJS statistician Matthew R. Durose. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics
“Testing Justice: The Rape Kit Backlog in Los Angeles City and County,” by Sarah Tofte. March, 2009 Human Rights Watch.
Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, National Academy of Sciences, 2009.
About This Post:
Image above is “Overwhelmed” @Badboo from Dreamstime.com
Used by permission.
This post was prepared by Jan Burke for the Crime Lab Project.
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