Report From the State Legislative Audit Bureau Recommends the DOJ Hire More Forensic Toxicologists

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024 -- 10:01 AM

(Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) A new report from the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau recommends the state Department of Justice hire more forensic toxicologists, monitor the timeliness of processing sexual assault kits and develop written policies to improve processing times in the State Crime Laboratories.

According to Jessie Opoien with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the audit, requested by the Legislature's Joint Audit Committee, found that DOJ spent $30.4 million on its three crime laboratories, which are located in Madison, Milwaukee and Wausau, in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

The agency was authorized 177.1 full-time positions for its crime laboratories in July 2023, 105.5 of which were designated for analysts, who generally examine evidence. The vacancy rate of analyst positions increased from 2.6% in July 2019 to 9.5% in July 2023.

Auditors also found that the median turnaround time for completing evidence analyses rose from 39 days, for assignments created in the 2019-20 fiscal year, to 58 days for assignments created in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

A survey in January of sheriffs, police chiefs, district attorneys, circuit court judges, public defenders, medical examiners and coroners found that 45.3% of respondents were satisfied with the crime labs' timeliness in analyzing evidence, and 25.9% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.

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