MEMPHIS, Tenn — The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is speeding up the hiring process and adding new forensic lab positions in an effort to expand testing and reduce turnaround time for sexual assault kits.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, and Speaker Cameron Sexton made the announcement Thursday.
25 new forensic lab positions are being added at three labs across the state. There will be eight new positions at the lab in Jackson, which serves the Memphis area. The Nashville lab will see 11 new positions, and the Knoxville lab will get six.
Funding for these positions will be recurring and included in the 2023-2024 Fiscal Year budget. Existing funds will be used in the interim.
The TBI told ABC24 in early September that the Jackson Crime Lab’s average turnaround time for sexual assault kits ranges from 33 to 49 weeks from September 2021 to August 2022.
“The commitment to fund additional positions will help us get a jump on the necessary training time to get new scientists prepared to perform their duties. This is a critical step in the process,” said TBI Director David Rausch. “In addition to this, we have collaborated with the Governor and leadership in both houses to prepare to do several things to immediately improve our turnaround times in our Forensic Biology units, to include: providing overtime to our current scientists and technicians to work pending cases, expanding operations to include weekends, outsourcing as many eligible kits as we can to private laboratories, and contracting with retired TBI special agent/forensic scientists to assist in training new employees to free up current scientists who are pulled from case work to train new scientists. We’re confident these steps will bring us closer to more efficient turnaround times and put us in a position, within the next year, to be closer to our goal of 8 to 12 weeks for all evidence.”
“For several years, Tennessee has made historic investments to support the TBI’s mission so that law enforcement can do its job and combat violent crime. As our nation faces rising crime, we are taking this additional step to eliminate bureaucratic hurdles, increase the TBI’s capacity and reduce testing turnaround times as quickly as possible,” said Gov. Bill Lee.