An unfunded mandate is a statute or regulation that requires a state or local government to do things but not provide them the money to do those things. They have a long and painful history in U.S. government. Unfunded mandates happen a lot but it is worse when the agency involved already has a small budget and/or is underfunded. Like forensic labs. The mandate is usually a good thing, like requiring training for nurses on how to properly collect and process evidence in sexual assaults so that more kits get submitted for analysis. Testing all sexual assault kits has an enormous return on the budgetary investment to society, including personal, social, and public safety benefits. But…when all those newly trained nurses start sending more kits to the forensic laboratory, what happens? Backlogs, that’s what happens. And without a systemic change in how the work gets done—especially in light of increased demand for services—the lab will falter or fail. Laboratories may even curtail what kinds of exams they will conduct; some may even stop offering them.
Why isn’t forensic science funded like it matters? Good question.
Costs have increased.
Turnaround times have increased.
Backlogs have soared.
Yet, “the growth in the total laboratory budget for the typical laboratory has been under 3% per year for the past decade” (page 39).
When demand exceeds resources, that’s really bad. And we all suffer. Forensic science needs to be funded according to its demand and importance in a criminal justice system.