Recent reports from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement show that Florida's crime lab is getting slower at processing forensic evidence, a problem that officials say may be due to high employee turnover rates.
The Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee bureau reports that average turnaround times for all lab requests have gotten worse in nearly every quarterly report that the department provides to state officials.
The newspapers reported in September that delays in getting lab results are forcing law enforcement agencies to turn to costlier ways of dealing with requests. Some counties have created their own crime labs while others use private labs.
Department commissioner Richard Swearingen says many crime lab employees leave for higher-paying jobs. He told the House Justice Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday that he is seeking almost $4 million to provide pay raises to 297 workers.
