Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Crime Lab Dna topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission hears crime‑lab update: ASAP program, staffing increases and rape‑kit turnaround
Summary
SFPD forensic staff described a multi-pronged approach to reduce sexual‑assault testing delays: the ASAP swab program, reconfigured staffing (two-team rotations), outsourcing when queues exceed capacity, and planned facility expansion. Presenters gave a current average turnaround of roughly 19 weeks for sexual‑assault DNA analysis.
At the May 8 Police Commission meeting, Captain Dan Perea, commanding officer of Forensic Services, delivered a detailed update on sexual‑assault evidence testing and the crime lab’s capacity.
Perea said the lab is accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD) and that the 2011 ASAP (Additional Sexual Assault Program) was created to prioritize the most probative swabs from sexual‑assault exams for expedited entry into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). "ASAP swabs... are delivered to the police department within 72 hours of collection," he said, and those profiles can be uploaded and searched weekly in CODIS.
He described a multi‑step testing process (screening, extraction, quantitation, amplification, peer review and technical review) and said the lab reorganized into two teams to increase throughput. Staffing rose from a handful of criminalists in 2010 to 19 criminalists and two supervisors in 2012, he said, and the department expects to add more supervisors and criminalists this year.
Perea acknowledged that definitions of 'backlog' vary but cited the National Institute of Justice standard (an unworked case older than 90 days) and said the oldest sexual‑assault case currently waiting to be worked dated to March 2013 — within the 90‑day threshold. He also described an outsourcing queue that moves cases to an outside vendor when internal capacity is exceeded and said the lab uses outsourcing strategically to lower turnaround times for cases that would otherwise wait.
When asked about turnaround, Perea said sexual‑assault testing in San Francisco averages about 19 weeks (roughly 4–5 months), comparable with Bay Area norms of 4–6 months, with a broader range across case types from about 2 weeks up to 9 months depending on prioritization and case complexity.
Public comment included testimony from Heather Marlowe, who said a kit taken in 2010 was not processed for 868 days and asked how such delays could occur. Captain Perea and other presenters stressed that policies call for testing all kits and that operational changes and additional staff were intended to reduce such long delays; Perea agreed to provide written prioritization guidelines to the commission secretary.
Commissioners did not adopt new policy at the meeting but asked for the crime‑lab’s prioritization guidelines and additional data on outsourcing and turnaround times for subsequent review.
