Searching for cash instead of clues

Katie Stallcup
Staff writer
Published: May 13, 2008

It’s not “CSI.”

No one wears high heels to work crime scenes.

“We don’t drive Hummers, we don’t fly helicopters and, as far as I know, nobody’s kissing in the lab,” Alabama Department of Forensic Science director Michael Sparks said.

Some of the technology matches what’s on TV, but it takes longer to work cases - a lot longer and a lot more work.

The department handles everything from firearms analysis to blood spatter interpretation for law enforcement across the state, providing tools for prosecution.

But, like other state agencies, the department’s budget from the state’s general fund will be cut next year. It’s just a matter of how much, Sparks said.

“As we’re coming into this new budget cycle, I’m looking at an 18 percent reduction,” Sparks said. “…There’ll be things we won’t be able to do. An 18 percent hit for me is huge. I mean, that’s unbelievable.”

The department is already trying to reduce its backlog in all its areas, he said. But the rate of catch-up will slow significantly if the department has to start making cuts, he said.

DNA analysis is at a six-month turnaround timeframe, and the DNA databank is current, he said. Autopsies are still backed up six to nine months, depending on the case.

But if state funding gets cut, they’ll have to rely more heavily on fee-based funds, Sparks said. At the current rate, those will run out in 2010.

“By the 2010 budget, they’ll have to tell me what they don’t want me to do anymore,” he said.

A cut in forensics will affect law enforcement and prosecution, Sparks said.

Lee County District Attorney Nick Abbett’s office relies on the department, but his office’s funds will likely be cut, too.

“Eighteen percent of the (state DA) budget is one-fifth of my budget,” Abbett said. “… And the bulk of my budget is salaries. In two years’ time, it’ll kill me… We’re already stretched to our limit.”

The locally-funded Lee County Sheriff’s Office isn’t looking at any direct effect from state budget cuts, but any downsizing to Forensic Sciences would really hurt his office, Sheriff Jay Jones said.

“It plays a critical role in the investigative process,” Jones said. “It would be very difficult … to do our job in the law enforcement community without Forensic Sciences. … The bottom line is their business is finding the truth through physical evidence, and they are a critical component of the criminal justice system.”

Forensic Sciences funding should be cut as little as possible, Sparks said.

“Because what we’re talking about here is a public safety issue,” he said. “When … we’re able to find murderers and rapists with this money, then, I don’t really know how negotiable that is.”

And while television shows about forensic science teams may contribute to misperception about their jobs, Sparks said, they have helped raise awareness, even among budgeting legislators.

“At least now, with TV programs, they know what we’re talking about,” he said. “Before, everybody thought you worked with trees.”

By the Numbers (Source: Alabama Department of Forensic Science Director Michael Sparks ) :

- 11 labs statewide

- 50,000 cases a year

- 30,000 drug cases

- More than 3,500 autopsies a year

- 350 homicide autopsies last year