Employees leaving state forensic lab contributes to backlog - WOWK 13 Charleston, Huntington WV News, Weather, Sports

The West Virginia State Police forensic lab has spent $2 million in the past 10 years training employees who are no longer employed by the agency.

Soraya McClung, director of the West Virginia State Police forensic lab, spoke to lawmakers Aug. 14 during an interim committee meeting.

McClung said the Legislature authorized two new forensic lab positions during the most recent session, and they're still in the hiring process.

McClung said it takes six months to train new analysts, but she expects case turnaround time to decrease to 30 days or fewer if those new employees are retained.

McClung said the lab receives about 3,500 cases per year, and one significant challenge is in the drug section of the lab because new substances are being created for synthetic drugs each time one of them is banned.

McClung said the biggest struggle for the department is keeping the staff it trains. Her suggestion was to keep the pay scales competitive with other states.

The forensic lab's backlog reached an all-time high, McClung said, in 2009 with nearly 3,000 cases. She said between 2006-09, five analysts and three trainees left.

"Time that is spent to train forensic analysts is time taken away from working cases," she said. "It takes a year to train a new DNA analyst.

"The key to reducing our backlog is stability. We need to retain our trained analysts."

McClung said the starting salary for a forensic analyst is about $29,000 or $30,000 for someone with a master's degree. She said someone who has stayed for three years receives a $33,000 salary or $35,000 if the person has a master's degree.

"You can see how the gap gets bigger and bigger," she said. "I think the numbers just speak for themselves."

McClung said an analyst with five years of experience would make about $35,000 per year in West Virginia, but that person would make $58,000 in Ohio. She said her DNA supervisor makes $39,000 per year, but the same position would be paid $76,000 per year in Ohio or $51,000 a year in Kentucky. All West Virginia state employees received a 2 percent pay increase July 1.

McClung said in 2009, they hired a part-time employee as an evidence coordinator to review each of the 600-some backlogged cases. The coordinator contacted prosecutors for the cases and many were eliminated because they had been adjudicated and the lab was never contacted. McClung said they also use robotics in the DNA section to try to reduce backlog and use several partnerships with Marshall University.

Delegate Kelli Sobonya, R-Cabell, asked McClung if the Legislature could mandate better communications among the agencies so adjudicated cases don't contribute to the backlog. McClung said a new, web-based laboratory information management system is being created so prosecutors and law enforcement can use an access code to log into the laboratory to check the status of their cases.