FORT WORTH -- A decade after shutting down its DNA unit amid backlogs and accusations of shoddy work and contamination, the Fort Worth Police Department is ready to resume DNA analysis.
The lab's two forensic scientists will begin working cases Monday, crime lab Director Tom Stimpson said Thursday. With the training of three other scientists at least six months away, Stimpson said, he hopes that the Police Department can stop outsourcing most DNA testing within a year."The benefit to the department for us really is going to be the turnaround time and the selection of what we can test," Stimpson said. "Now we're in full control of our evidence. We can test what we want and when we want it."And the savings, he said, will be significant.Grants cover some testing by the University of North Texas, but the Police Department must pay roughly $250,000 a year to Orchid Cellmark, a Dallas-based company, for other analyses, he said.Putting a rush on a DNA order costs even more. "With Orchid, because they're a business, we were paying them a premium of about $500 a sample over and above what the regular cost was to have something done within a week or 15 days," Stimpson said.An in-house DNA unit will also save money for the entire Police Department, because a faster turnaround can mean quicker arrests, he said."Say we have a suspect on a serial sexual offender [case] and there's biological evidence," Stimpson said."In the past, we've had to take that stuff in and we can wait one month, two months or three months to get a DNA profile to link the guy. Now, we're going to be able to do that in a week, so we can get them off the streets much sooner. It saves a lot of surveillance and investigation costs."DNA analysis was suspended in October 2002 after Tarrant County prosecutors decided to forgo seeking the death penalty in a capital murder case because of concerns about the work of one of the lab's scientists.Six months later, the Tarrant County district attorney's office launched a criminal investigation of the DNA lab that expanded to the lab's serology, chemistry and firearms sections.In the end, prosecutors found that no one was wrongly convicted or accused because of flawed DNA analysis. The investigation did, however, reveal widespread problems in the serology and DNA units, as well as troubling practices in the chemistry and firearms sections.The Police Department began making improvements even before the investigation ended and, in 2005, resumed serology tests after receiving accreditation.The goal was always to resume DNA analysis, but the Police Department needed a new crime lab in which to do it, Stimpson said.In June 2010, it got a new home -- a former Stripling & Cox department store on East Lancaster Avenue that was converted into a high-tech crime lab and property room. A lab designated for DNA analysis was included.With the accommodations in place, Stimpson said, the Police Department set about establishing new protocols and finding the right people to work in the lab."We didn't even look at the standard operating procedures that they used to use," he said. "We had to write all the policies, all the procedures and meet very difficult standards by the FBI and [American Society of Crime Lab Directors] to get accredited," he said. "We started at the drawing board -- square one -- and that was an awfully long job."Assistant District Attorney Christy Jack, who conducted the investigation of the crime lab along with prosecutor Mark Thielman, is among those happy that Fort Worth will resume DNA testing."I was given a tour shortly after the Fort Worth crime lab moved to its new location. The new facility is state of the art, and I have the utmost confidence in the personnel who will be overseeing the DNA testing," Jack said."By housing all of the forensic experts in one location, I'm hopeful it will shorten the time necessary to conduct DNA testing."Deanna Boyd, 817-390-7655Twitter: @deannaboydHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
