State Crime Labs Had Fewer Cases, Longer Turnarounds in 2024

Wisconsin’s state crime labs received fewer total cases in 2024 than in 2023, but took longer on average to turn around DNA casework and toxicology, according to a new report from the state Department of Justice.

The report was released Thursday and provides an insight into drug use trends and changes in turnaround times for processing evidence.

[inarticled]The state DOJ’s Division of Forensic Sciences received 8,965 total cases last year, down from 9,388 the previous year.

According to the report, sexual assault cases can require assignments in both the DNA casework and toxicology units.

Sexual assaults made up nearly 24 percent of all DNA cases, the report said. DNA casework took an average of 129 days last year, up from 108 the prior year. While the number of cases declined, the number of individual items processed by the DNA casework unit increased from 38,377 to 39,992 during the same timespan.

Meanwhile, sexual assaults accounted for 7.5 percent of all toxicology cases, the report says. The average turnaround time for toxicology was 82 days in 2024, up from 64 days in 2023. The number of items processed by the toxicology unit decreased from 5,618 to 5,125 from 2023 to 2024.

State Attorney General Josh Kaul said turnaround times are a result of the number of cases the crime labs receive, the complexity of those cases and the resources available to forensic scientists.

In the most recent state budget, he said he asked the Legislature to fund 19 additional positions to the labs but did not receive any of them.

“We had a significant state surplus in the last budget, but there were zero positions added for the labs,” Kaul said. “That was disappointing to see. And it’s my hope that legislators will instead take a different approach in the future and make the investments we’re requesting in the labs.”

In October, Kaul, a Democrat, announced that he would seek a third term as Wisconsin’s attorney general. Republican Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney ran against Kaul in 2022 and announced in October that he plans to challenge him again in 2026.

The state crime lab is expected to be a campaign issue next year, as it was in the last election. In 2023, Kaul and Toney came together to call on the Legislature to fund additional employees at the crime labs.

Toney said the new crime lab report shows that Kaul has failed to improve forensic testing. He said long turnaround times from the state crime labs are forcing judges to reschedule hearing and trials.

“These are real issues that are affecting all 72 counties in Wisconsin,” Toney said. “They’re affecting our law enforcement agencies. They’re affecting our prosecutors. They’re affecting defendants who need these results to be able to make decisions.”

In response to that criticism, Kaul said the DOJ has enhanced the crime labs in several ways, from adding a new firing range at the Wausau crime lab to allow for firearms and toolmarks analysis to breaking ground on a new lab in southeastern Wisconsin.

He also said the labs need more investment from the Legislature to reduce turnaround times because “the more people you have who are available to test the evidence, the more quickly you can get through that evidence.”

“We know what’s needed, which is for the Legislature to partner with the labs and to make the investments that are needed so that we’ve got the resources that the labs need to reduce those times,” he said.

Toney said Kaul was trying to “pass the buck” to the Legislature. He says the DOJ has more resources in its crime labs now than it did under Kaul’s predecessor.

The 2018 state crime lab report, which provides data from Brad Schimel’s final year as state attorney general, shows the average turnaround on DNA cases that year was 80 days, while the average forensic toxicology turnaround time was 51 days.

In the 2020-2021 state budget, the Legislature and governor funded a total of nine new crime lab positions, including digital forensic analysts and toxicologists. And in the 2024-2025 budget, the state budgeted for three toxicology positions in the crime labs. Those additions are less than the executive branch requested in each budget.

While turnaround times for DNA and toxicology units increased last year, average turnarounds decreased for the controlled substances unit and the prints and footwear unit, the 2024 crime lab report noted.

The report also showed that the number of cases where evidence tested positive for fentanyl increased from 765 cases in 2023 to 1,034 cases in 2024. A decade prior, there were just 29 such cases.

Listen to the WPR report

State crime labs saw fewer cases in 2024, longer turnarounds for DNA and toxicology was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.