COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — With a larger staff and more space
after an expansion, the State Highway Patrol’s crime lab is processing
drug evidence more quickly and reducing a backlog that grew to thousands
of cases as troopers focused more on crimes such as drug trafficking
and had more evidence in need of testing.
The speedup is viewed as
good news for prosecutors and other authorities, who were sometimes
waiting five months or more for results confirming the types of drugs
involved in certain cases.
Col. Paul Pride, who became the patrol’s superintendent last year, called such turnaround times
"absolutely unacceptable."
"The
last thing we want to do is arrest (suspects) and then not finish it up
and not complete the deal," Pride said. "We’ve had that happen before."
The
backlog peaked at around 4,600 cases in August 2012, and the average
processing time was a little less than five months, according to the
patrol. It said the backlog is closer to about 1,500 cases now, with a
turnaround time of roughly three months. The agency hopes eventually to
shrink that average to less than one month.
The facility, which
also includes a toxicology lab that processes thousands more tests
annually, handled more than 8,300 drug evidence submissions in 2010.
That rose to more than 13,000 last year, much of it marijuana, said
Capt. David Dicken, a director at the lab. Most of what comes in has
been seized by troopers, but the lab also does some testing for other
law enforcement agencies.
Dicken said the lab was so overwhelmed
that he and another officer had to rearrange storage spaces on their own
to squeeze in more drug evidence.
"These are good problems to
have… because we’re making Ohio safer by doing what we’re doing,"
Dicken said. "We just want to do it a little quicker."
To ease the
backlog, the patrol added staff at the lab and, using mostly seized
assets and grant money, it updated its space and equipment.
It
hired a dozen chemists over the past three years, including nine for the
drug-testing side, bringing the facility’s current staff to 27, Dicken
said.
The facility grew by about one-third in an expansion that
was finished late last year and totaled nearly $1.5 million, not
including equipment. Supervisors added lab and office space and bought
more work stations and new analytical equipment.
Their latest
addition, a testing machine that arrived this month, fits nicely with
troopers’ efforts to crack down on impaired driving. It will allow
analysts to test for more types of drugs, even in extremely small blood
samples, lab director Joey Jones said. The testing menu of 10 classes of
drugs, including marijuana and generic opiates, could grow to 30, with
additions such as prescription painkillers and synthetics, he said.
Lab
staff also found ways to shave time off their work. The chemists have
switched to a paperless process to record their work, and they’ve
partnered with a Circleville court to provide testimony by video link
instead of driving there in person. Dicken said the agency would like to
expand that idea to other patrol staff and other courts.
Franklin
County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said he has noticed an improvement in the
turnaround for both drug and toxicology tests at the patrol lab. And
faster results can mean faster prosecutions.
"Any delay is not conducive to moving the case forward through the system," O’Brien said.
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