Criminals in Kansas may be receiving reduced sentences or are having their charges completely dismissed due to a lack of timely prosecution, said Derek Schmidt, Kansas attorney general.
The reason: Inadequate forensics capabilities.
The solution: A new forensics lab with expanded capabilities and additional workforce.
Schmidt was the featured speaker at the Iola Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting Friday night at the Dr. John Silas Bass Community Building.
“The average turn-around time for digital evidence is now 14 months for a person facing major felony charges,” Schmidt said. “For those with lesser crimes, usually the cases are returned to a local agency because we don’t have the manpower to process the data. In those cases, the charges are greatly reduced, if not dismissed.”
In a recent survey, 41 percent of local law enforcement agencies said they had dismissed criminal charges at one time or another because they couldn’t get forensic lab information in a timely manner, Schmidt said.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has been a division of the attorney general’s office since 1939, including its lab services that test DNA samples and toxicology reports, as well as analyze data gathered from digital media and GPS tracking.
“The expectations are tremendous. And everyone expects us to have an Abby Sciuto on board,” Schmidt said of the character who portrays a forensics scientist on the TV program “NCIS.”
Three things are working against the forensics department.
A) The facility is in the basement of an abandoned Topeka middle school built in 1929, and renovated in the 1980s;
B) Salaries are $15,000 below the national average for forensics scientists, who typically have a Ph.D. in a variety of sciences. “The demand for their skills is high from both the private and the public sectors. Today’s scientists can pretty much go where they want,” Schmidt said.
C) Kansas does not provide a complete forensics science program. “Odds are, kids will have to go out of state for their education to become a forensics scientist, and then it’s hard to get them to return. There’s no growing and keeping our own.”
The new $55 million forensics center would be on the campus of Washburn University in Topeka. In his State of the State address, Gov. Brownback approved the facility, saying the first $3.5 million for architectural, engineering and finance planning would come from the transportation budget. Washburn has agreed to donate the land for the facility as well as create a forensic science curriculum.
The Kansas Legislature will have the final say on the center, Schmidt said. So far, the Senate has given its approval.
OTHER highlights of the night were awards to The New Klein Lumber and Advantage Computers for being the small and large businesses of the year. Steve Eisenbart, co-owner with his brother, Bill, accepted the award for the lumber business, which has been an Iola staple since 1903. New Klein Lumber has four employees.
Advantage Computers has 25 employees. It began in 1980 as Modern Banking Systems of Kansas. Advantage sells, installs and supports computers and servers, security camera systems and data backup and storage solutions. Cheri Clark is its president.
No one from Advantage was on hand to accept the award.
