The Oakland Police Department Crime Lab (OPD Crime Lab) is struggling with chronic underfunding and a backlog of 3,500 unsolved cases, according to a grand jury report released last week.

The Alameda County Grand Jury recommends the OPD Crime Lab be consolidated with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Crime Lab (ACSO Crime Lab) into a county wide criminal forensics testing program.

“Changes in the recent economy have led to funding cuts for law enforcement agencies and crime labs across the state,” said the report. “Therefore, meeting the training and technological needs of labs has become increasingly more complex and difficult.”

The grand jury cited two major factors which have limited the OPD Crime Lab’s casework efficiency; “insufficient lab space” which limits their ability to add new staff and “lack of access to new technology.”

The OPD crime lab is housed in a 60-year old building in Oakland, consisting only of 6,100 square feet – the same amount as when the building was built in the 1950s. The report characterized the lab as “antiquated and egregiously undersized.” By contrast, ACSO Crime Lab is 10,000 square feet and is set to be 70 percent larger when a new building is completed.

“Advances in technology, increases in staff size, and a demand for forensic testing over the last six decades lead to the conclusion that Oakland’s crime lab has outgrown its space,” said the report.

The Alameda Grand Jury also reported the OPD crime lab has been unable to fully utilize a national DNA database system called Combined DNA Indexing System (CODIS). In order for DNA matches from CODIS to be used in a court of law, the lab must obtain original samples and match them with the DNA in the database. However, due to understaffing, the lab has only processed one-third of the samples since CODIS was created in 2000.

The jury also criticized OPD’s “rudimentary spreadsheet system” for making it difficult to track unsolved cases.

In 2011, OPD announced it planned to stop investigating non-homicide requests over three years old because of a 15 percent increase in backlogged cases. The report also highlighted 650 unsolved sexual assault cases and 330 unsolved homicides that have gone untested for lack of resources.

As a result of under staffing and underfunding, the OPD’s fingerprint division has a historical backlog of over 10,000 cases and is now collecting half of the fingerprints it did 10 years ago, despite an increase in the crime rate.

“Due to lack of funding by elected officials in Oakland, many requests for forensic testing have simply been cancelled, leaving victims to wonder if their cases will ever be solved,” the jury reported.

OPD’s small staff is highly regarded despite the difficulties they face, according to the report. Still, the amount of time it takes to train a replacement means that even one retirement or vacancy can have “devastating effects on their ability to keep up with an ever growing backlog of cases.” The jury reported this could threaten OPD’s ability to meet demands for service and quality.

The OPD crime lab’s backlog is aggravated by the fact that the lab doesn’t contract out to other labs for help, instead relying on its own chronically understaffed and underfunded program.

Many of the police departments in Alameda County use the ACSO crime lab for their forensics work under a fee-for-service program, according to the report. Some occasionally use federal, state and private labs in order to get the DNA testing they need.

A grand jury found similar issues in 2001, prompting leaders in Oakland and Alameda County to agree to work towards consolidating into a county wide forensics testing lab. Over ten years later, Alameda County is still facing the same problems.