Sheriff’s crime lab seeks three-year exception to competitive procurement for DNA kits

The Johnson County Sheriff's Office crime lab asked the Board of Commissioners for a three-year exception to competitive procurement to purchase DNA kits, reagents and supplies from Life Technologies and Promega, each not to exceed $250,000 annually.

Evan Brewer of the Sheriff's Office DNA section told commissioners commercially available kits are required for DNA testing and that the lab has used the current technologies for up to eight to 10 years depending on the kit. Brewer said the lab compared three vendors before adopting the current technologies and that a full validation to change technology would take substantial staff time and cost: "The validation process itself is about 6 months," he said, and staff who perform validations cannot work casework while conducting them. He said training would also be required for roughly 14 staff members and could take two to four weeks per person depending on the technology.

Because validations require laboratory accreditation steps and significant staff time, Brewer said it is not practical to change vendors frequently. Staff said this would be the third time they asked for a three-year exception to competition and that the request is for budgeted, recurring laboratory purchases.

Ending: Commissioners asked clarifying questions about the vetting and timeline; staff said they will continue to review vendor performance and consider price points as part of future planning but recommended the three-year exception because of accreditation and validation constraints.