Combining forensic labs increases effectiveness, saves money

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan—With the Army budget on the verge of extensive cuts in spending and personnel, leaders are searching for and finding new ways to save money, materials and manpower.

The combination of two forensics labs on Bagram Airfield has improved efficiency and effectiveness while saving the tax payers millions in the process.

Task Force Paladin, in an effort to improve the overall productivity of their forensic and evidence exploitation efforts, took the initiative to combine their Complex Explosive Exploitation Cell and the Joint Expeditionary Forensics labs into one facility.

“By combining these facilities we saw a significant increase in our ability to maintain high quality assurance, safety, and to meet international standards for forensics,” said U.S. Army Maj. Dorian Hatcher, Theatre Explosive Exploitation officer in charge, Combined Joint Task Force Paladin, and a native of San Antonio.

It is also shaping the way other labs in Kandahar and Camp Leatherneck are being similarly designed.

By co-locating the two facilities they streamlined the process removing paperwork redundancies. They also added an information management system. The weapons technical exploitation analysis tool, allows cases to be tracked much more easily, freeing resources to expedite the bio-metric enrollment of perpetrators.

The bio-metric enrollment process logs data of suspects such as fingerprints and DNA.

“If we can find out where the sharks are swimming around, go out and tag those sharks with our bio-metric enrollment process, then we can track them and hopefully find more sharks,” said Hatcher.

The labs have the ability to extract and process fingerprints in a variety of ways. They are also capable of processing DNA data as well. Using the latest technology they’re catching the enemy.

“In my laboratories we have capabilities of doing firearm examinations and we have a drug chemistry capability as well,” said Leroy Keith, chief of the expeditionary forensic laboratory. “We’re taking away their ability to hide and finding out who the individuals are based on the processing of the evidence.”

Since co-locating the laboratories, they have saved more than $6 million. As for efficiency and effectiveness they have also improved dramatically.

“For instance, six weeks prior to the merger we had around 68 cases a week,” said Hatcher. “Now we are processing around 181 cases a week out of our Bagram facility. All the while we have maintained a 97 percent conviction rate.” 

The forensics teams are also learning more about how the enemy functions so they can implement force protection measures.

“Keeping people safe is our primary responsibility,” said Hatcher.