Representatives of the Illinois State Police say the backlog of forensic evidence in Illinois has been reduced significantly, but the support of lawmakers is needed to further address delays and deficiencies in the process.
Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly made those comments to the Illinois Senate Public Health Committee during a Dec. 10 hearing on the DNA backlog and evidence processing.
According to Kelly, since 2019, ISP's Division of Forensic Services has reduced the number of "biology DNA pending assignments," referred to as the DNA backlog, by 48 percent. In March of 2019, the backlog had 9,829 pending assignments, which has fallen to 4,857 pending assignments as of November 2020.