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Your Evidence, Our Court Case: How One General Counsel’s Office Streamlines Evidence in the Labs with Active Criminal Justice Cases Kristin Murrock & Kodiak Hill-Davis Washington DC Department of Forensic Sciences Forensic Science Laboratory | Public Health Laboratory | Crime Scene Sciences
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Who Are We? -NOT SCIENTISTS -Law Clerks at the D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences, Office of the General Counsel Washington DC Department of Forensic Sciences Forensic Science Laboratory | Public Health Laboratory | Crime Scene Sciences
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What is the Project? -Previous Method of Case Tracking -There was a disconnect between the science performed in the labs and the evidence used in Court -This project sought to address this efficiency issue
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Why Should You Care? -Reallocation of Resources NOT SAVINGS -By improving the efficiency of what the labs are testing, we sought to improve the overall benefit provided to the stakeholders, the residents of D.C., and by the Agency.
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The Project Overview -Three Spreadsheets -Tracking Various Data Points -Establishing Communication Between Multiple Parties -Reporting to Unit Managers
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What Did We Track? -Evidence in each of the Labs -Active Court Cases -All Pending Court Dates - Closed Court Cases -Resolved -Dismissed
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Established Communication -Attorneys -Court Dates -Testing of Evidence Necessary -Unit Managers -Future Court Dates -Testing of Evidence Necessary -Multiple Defendants
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What Did We Report? -Unit Managers -Future Court Dates -Aids long-term planning and assignment of cases -Dismissed or Resolved Cases -Alerts that case may be removed from testing queue
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Methodology
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Methodology Outcome -Determination of Available Efficiency Reallocation -Two Criteria: -Resolved Cases & Dismissed Cases -Formula: -Date of Result per D.C. Court Case System v. Whether Case Started
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Resolved Cases -FBU: 61 Cases -LFU: 61 Cases -FEU: 88 Cases
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Dismissed Cases -FBU: 22 Cases -LFU: 8 Cases -FEU: 30 Cases
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Total Cases Removed -The resources necessary to process these 270 cases were able to be reallocated within the respective labs
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Quantifying Costs Per Case -FBU Cases: $3,183.45 -LFU Cases: $573.26 -FEU Cases: $263.01
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Quantifying Cost: Resolved Cases -FBU Cases: $194,190.45 -LFU Cases: $34,968.86 -FEU Cases: $23,144.88
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Quantifying Cost: Dismissed Cases -FBU Cases: $70,035.90 -LFU Cases: $4,586.08 -FEU Cases: $7,890.30
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Available Efficiency Reallocation -$334,816.47 from 270 Cases
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Reallocation or Misallocation? -Without this system, the lab would have worked 300 cases that did not need to be worked -Where did that money go?
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BENEFIT: Efficiency Reallocation -Since the purpose of testing this evidence is for use in the court system, this reallocation means that DFS scientists were able to process the most relevant evidence.
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Where Are We Now? -Improved efficiency of testing queues -Transitioning to a Software Database Management Tool -Exploring capturing new data points
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Questions? kristin.murrock2@dc.gov kodiak.hill-davis@dc.gov
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Washington DC Department of Forensic Sciences Forensic Science Laboratory | Public Health Laboratory | Crime Scene Sciences
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