NEW YORK (AP) - New York City’s medical examiner will use $2.4 million in extra funding to lower the time it takes to process DNA in criminal cases.
The Wall Street Journal (https://on.wsj.com/1kez59S ) says Acting Chief Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson told a City Council budget hearing Tuesday the money would be used to hire 16 more criminologists.
The funding is part of a 12 percent increase in medical examiner funds sought by the city.
According to the Mayor’s Management Report, the median time it took the medical examiner to analyze DNA in sexual assaults was 89 days in fiscal 2013, up from 46 days in fiscal 2012.
From January through May, it averaged 69 days. ME officials say a sexual-assault DNA kit now would take about 30 days to analyze.
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Information from: The Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com
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