AURORA | Forensic teams at a new regional crime lab intended to bolster criminal investigations in Aurora and its surrounding communities won’t be testing DNA samples until the end of the year, several months later than officials originally estimated workers would begin analyzing samples at the new facility.
“I’m frustrated only to the extent that the sooner we’re able to stand up that testing ability and add that tool to our tool box the quicker we’re able to achieve what this lab was created for,” said George Brauchler, district attorney for the 18th Judicial District. “It’s just frustrating because you want to get this thing going.”
Investigators at the Unified Metropolitan Forensic Crime Laboratory near Centennial Airport are still working to get the required certifications to test DNA samples at the facility, Aurora police confirmed in an email sent Thursday.
“The Unified Metropolitan Forensic Crime Laboratory is not processing DNA samples at this time,” Anthony Camacho, a spokesman for the Aurora Police Department, wrote in an email. “There is a lengthy and thorough process they must adhere to in order to receive the necessary certifications for conducting sample testing.”
Camacho said the lab will likely begin processing DNA “near the end of this year.”
That’s several months after officials indicated the lab would begin testing when the some $13.7 million facility opened late last year.
Steve Johnson, chief deputy with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, said at a press conference in late September the 26,500-square-foot facility would begin testing in early 2019.
The delay means the crime lab won’t begin making a dent in the sizable backload of samples currently awaiting testing at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for several more months.
There were 1,981 cases awaiting DNA testing in the CBI system in January, which is the most recent data available, according to Susan Medina, spokeswoman for the agency.
Medina said the state bureau of investigation received 4,718 DNA cases in total in 2018, and completed more than 5,000 cases. The agency typically processes more cases than it receives in a given year as it completes standing cases from previous years.
The average turnaround time for DNA analysis at CBI is more than six months, according to Medina. She said the time needed to complete analysis in sexual assault cases is about half of that average.
At the September press conference, Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said DNA testing takes up to 18 months to complete in certain cases.
Spurlock and other local law enforcement officials have lauded the facility as a necessary resource that will speed up local investigations related to the region’s most heinous crimes.
“Now when the sheriff talks about the ability to perhaps seek DNA results on even smaller cases, we’re talking property crimes, burglary, maybe car thefts — things that right now if we submitted those DNA results to our overwhelmed partners at CBI, they would say, ‘we’re going to have to put this further back in the queue as we deal with rapes, robberies (and) murders,’” Brauchler said in September. “Well, now this jurisdiction doesn’t have to wait on that. We can actually alleviate some of the pressure on CBI.”
The sheriffs from Arapahoe County and Douglas County, as well as Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz echoed Brauchler’s optimism regarding the new lab, which has been slated to employ about 31 people.
On Wednesday, Brauchler said he’s peeved the lab won’t be testing DNA until the fall or winter. Still, Brauchler said he doesn’t want to rush the lengthy certification process.
“I don’t want to rush to DNA and find out we didn’t get accredited or we don’t have a reliable product,” he said. “I want to get it right, but I want to get this thing going.”
Mirroring state trends, Brauchler said felony case filings in the 18th Judicial District, and, in turn, cases that could require DNA testing, have proliferated since he was first elected in 2012. He said felony case filings have increased about 45 percent in his district since he’s been in office.
Aurora is paying the most for the new crime lab in an intergovernmental agreement designed to fund the facility over a 20 year period with Arapahoe County and Douglas County. Aurora is contributing about $30.5 million over that two-decade span, while Arapahoe County will contribute $15.7 million and Douglas County will pony up about $23.6 million.