ALC - Game - Fish-State Police
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- October 2, 2026
Committee members the chair sees a quorum. this meeting is called to order Coach
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:25
here do you have any comments no just we had such a great meeting at the fish hatcheries so stay through the meeting and we'll have an announcement about an upcoming another site visit meeting that we'll have in august Sounds
good thank you co chair this time if you would is representatives here with
the Arkansasrimelab if you would just come forward and
have a seat at the table thank y'all for thank y'all for being here today and I really my
memory serves me correctly I believe this is the first time we've actually had the crime lab appear before
this committee unless y'all can think of another time I can't so we're we're really glad to have you appear before this committee today and if you would just to identify yourself for the committee and we'll get started I'm
Speaker 14
2:31
Sammy Williams deputy director of administrative operations at the crimeme lab. and I'm Jennifer beatty
Speaker 16
2:37
West. I'm the deputy director of scientific operations. OKy again thank you for being here
and let's just go ahead and jump into this and get started and I think what
probably a good way to start would be if you would just kind of give us an overview I know that we've got a new crime lab that is under construction so maybe we could start with that and you could kind of tell us where we're at with that project and what may be the completion date would be and I guess while you're on that topic you could go ahead and just discuss how that how the new and the additional space there in the new crime lab how that's going to assist law enforcement and the different
type of support that that will give to law enforcement and what you know what would be available to them that maybe is not available to them now because of us investing in the in a new crime lab so from there just tell us about the new crime lab and
Speaker 18
3:37
how it's going to help law enforcement great thank you we're glad to be here this afternoon. so the new crimeme lab is is well underway we've got about one year left a little over one year
left in the construction of that so everything's been on schedule and and going well there the the completion estimated completion date is the end of July of next year so we look to be begin moving in around August 1st of next year. we are planning to do a phased move in so that our services are not hindered while we're getting things up and running over there so you can still expect us to be putting
cases out but just a little background we're in a building right now that's over40 years old originally state police headquarters has been renovated numerous times to try to make it into lab space and then we've just grown drastically over that time in the past about 20 years our caseload has increased 100% so we've gone from around 15,000 cases a year to to around30,000 cases a year and so we've got
people I say I say it this way we've got people crammed into every closet we possibly can over there as we've had to grow to take on that backlog we're out of space for any sort of new instrumentation to to try to bring online we've got sections of the laboratory that work together spread out on different floors and having to transport evidence back and forth between each other so we're very excited to to greatly expand in this new laboratory this will give us
the room to work. I'll give you an example in our DNA section there's only so much space so only so many people can work in these laboratory spaces at a time they have this very detailed schedule of when people can even go into these lab spaces to work because there's only room for two or three people to be in there at a time. So expanding this laboratory space will allow us to work more efficiently it will also allow us to bring new te technology online we've got things
like3d microscopes and firearms that we'll be bringing online so this is kind of where firearm analysis is heading is actually taking3d captures of cartridge cases that that give better detail to be able to make comparisons and and help search in databases we're going to be bringing on some new technologies and drugs that will help us with the new and emerging synthetic cannabinoids and being able to to better
separate those and identify what those are as so that we can stay in step or one step ahead of all the the garage chemist out there making these new drugs and and then those sections that work together will be located directly next to each other so we've planned this out we've worked with a forensic lab architect group so they've helped us and and worked through with us exactly what our needs
are for this new laboratory the way that we can make things as efficient as possible over there and you know we think we already offer great service but we think even greater things are to come. we've also planned for decades into the future so that we will be able to grow if needed especially as as we hope the population of our state keeps growing we'll we'll be able to handle that for for decades to come. just to add to that I know that
when this legislative body when we approve the appropriation for this new crime lab we also if if I remember correctly we also approved for two new positions I believe one of those was a forensic specialist position and the other one was a maybe two forensic technician positions so I guess we approved three so have you been able to fill those positions or have you had had any luck in being able to do that
Speaker 22
8:00
yes and before I say that I will add the newrime
Speaker 18
8:07
well that's encouraging to this body that's that's that's been our motto so far for that so we are we are definitely being trying to be good stewards of taxpayer money in that yes so a lot of a lot of those new positions were due to actct553 of2023 that required all overdose deaths to come for an autopsy to the crime lab. so we
saw an increase of about300 autopsies a year coming in and we have been able to hire positions to to handle that increase in autopsies that are coming in that's also another great thing about our new laboratory in the morgue were very limited on the number of tables that we have there where autopsies can be performed and we'll be doubling that amount so we can work more efficiently in the new morgue there as well
I know in the past and in talking to the director of the crime lab you know we were trying to compete with other states as far as they only graduated and and you may know know the number like there's only like 800 what is it forensic specialists medical examiners or how you refer to them in the country and it was only just a few that graduate with an expertise in that area every year and I know you know everybody's trying to trying to recruit them or
hire them how are we doing as far as what is being competitive with other states in regards to being able to recruit those type of specialists and those
Speaker 18
9:48
forensic and medical examiner areas yeah that's definitely been true in the past we've had vacancies in those positions sometimes for up to two years and thanks to the work of of the the legislature and the governor's office that is no longer the case. within the
past year year and a half we've been able to bring in a new deputy chief medical examiner we have also we have two new medical examiners that will be starting in august. they are finishing up their fellowships right now and so the fact that they want to come work in Arkansas. I think not only shows that we're being very competitive with salary but I
think that's also shows how great Doctor Brown, our current director and chief medical examiner is that people want to come work with him as well I also say we started a fellowship program just this last year for the first time that's another big thing only about half of the fellowship positions in the whole country are filled every year because there just aren't enough people
going into that field and we filled our fellow position the first year we ever had the program. he's just finishing up this month we've got another one starting next month and we've already got one coming the next year as well so to be a brand new program and have fellows wanting to come work with us I I think you know just shows how great our team is and and how great of a job they're doing at recruiting and how how competitive now we are with the rest of the country.
Good that's that's encouraging because I know that was a really concerned we had for several years and we attempt ed to pass legislation that hopefully would draw those individuals and makes Arkansas competitives there's another topic I'd like to hear you talk about and where we're at here in Arkansas and that's the rapid DNA testing can you just tell us share with this committee our who are are we doing what we
need to do as far as rapid DNAs or we behind or or are we meeting what we need to do to be able to stay ahead of ahead of that technology that is advancing so fast so kind
Speaker 29
12:23
of share with us where we're at. yes sir and again thank you again for having us here and for all the support that you have provided our lab we are really excited because we are in the final stages of the rapid DNA program getting started in going live with both Faulkner and Saling County. those were
our pilot agencies that have been through the thick and thin of this project with us right now we have been doing network testing between our the staterime lab network with the those facilities and their networks to ensure communication of that data can be transferred without any issues and we're also in the final stages of gaining what is called ATO the authority to operate with the FBI so every time I give a a time frame we
hit a brick row or brick wall but we're still hoping by July hopefully by end of July that we will be going live with the rapid pro rapid DNA program and booking stations at Faulkner County and Saline County so we're very excited about that and we could not have done that without your support for sure and we will be the fourth fourth in the nation with going live with rapid DNA if we're able to get it in there. so we're ahead we're definitely ahead.
Well that's good news. I know that's advancing technology and I think it's extremely critical as sport especially as
it relates to criminal investigations and bringing individuals to justice so tell me a little bit about the how how involved are we with the with the cous I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly the code is data center where all this DNA and all of this is actually entered into that are we are we good with that or we doing what we need to do yes
Speaker 29
14:08
sir we are so we have a coda section and for those that aren't aware CODUS is a combined DNA index
system and it is basically a database of DNA profiles from convicted offenders from arrestees and from criminal cases. Our DNA section processes homicides burglary, property crimes sexual assault cases those profiles that they obtained from those cases are entered and uploaded into the COUS database and there are for Arkansas two levels of coduS. there is the state level and then there is the national level and we participate in both of those
our DNA section and coda sections actually have to go through extensive audits just to participate in that COUS database program so they are audited every other year externally and every year internally to participate in that program with that theota system searches that database every day at both the state and the national level so as profiles are uploaded into that database they are constantly being searched. A profile is rarely
ever deleted from that program so even if a case is resolved from 2005 it's going to stay in that database and continue searching and if there's a situation where there's a serial rapist that continues to show up in different cases. Theo du S database will link that perpetrator throughout those cases and throughout those years. great
Speaker 33
15:35
news I'm glad to hear that I know I knew
the coest program was being very effective across the nation I was hoping that Arkansas we were we were right
where we needed to be that we were extremely involved with it I've got a couple of legislators got a question we'll stop right here and then before I follow up with additional questions so senator ice thank
Speaker 35
16:06
you Mr Chair thank you all for being here
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
16:12
today trying to remember when we approved funding for the new crime lab that we did have some money in there for
furnishings but my question is can you give us your opinion of where we're at today with the top scientific equipment that we need maybe compared to surrounding states where are we today and where do we need to be when you get in this this new facility with more room
and and able to do more things I know always the pies the sky you
know but just really where we need to be to be competitive routes you may we may already be there I'm not saying we're not but can you kind of give us an ideawid or with 8090% now and and and we could move it another few
Speaker 29
17:10
points if we had some stuff sir and I think we're going to tag team this response so with that what I can say is one of the things historically working at the crimeme lab we have done a great job of trying to stay with current
technologies and not getting behind on that. So I would say that we do have equipment that we will be transferring to the new laboratory but there's also gonna be because we all have more space we've been limited in the amount of equipment we can get and which limits capacity and so much like what Sammy was saying with the DNA section additional equipment will be needed to help continue to meet capacity and that's gonna be the great thing of having that extra space right
now the laboratory space for our DNA section, our toxicology section and our drug chemistry section is very limited and you can only put so much equipment in there and so being able to get additional pieces of equipment so if something goes down you have a backup instead of having to wait two weeks to get it fixed and and figure it out.
Speaker 18
18:20
it'll be great to have that I'll also say that we've we've been very proactive with with grants at our laboratory
and that has allowed us to to not only stay caught up but stay ahead of the game. one thing is we don't always want to be too ahead of the game because then no one has tested you know these technologies and things and and we don't want to waste any money that that we receive but I will say some of the we have received some competitive grants recently that will put us indefinitely the upper crime labs in the country for being the first to bring
online somechnologies one being that3d microscope technology in firearms that's not something that a lot of laboratories are using out there we've got some new visualization techniques that we be getting in for our fingerprint section and so that will make difficult surfaces that it's been difficult to pull prints off before we can use fluorescent powder now and and specialized camera equipment to
take good photos of of of that equipment you know we've been over the years trying trying to stay caught up but I think Jennifer's right that that one of the biggest things now is we just need to to scale to the amount of work that we have and through grant funds and asset forfeiture and then you know we're we're still trying to be very conservative in our use of these new building funds but we will try to get there where
we have exactly what we need to provide
the best services that we can. good to hear thank you thank you Mr Chair. You're welcome so if I understand you correctly we have the capabilities now to do likeddNA analysis toxicology reports ballistics as you referred to to the3d technology that is there drug analysis digital evidence, fingerprints forensic pathology what about if I pronounce this correctly
genealogy or geo geology or genealogy where they're actually able to take thed DNA from a skeleton and be able to tie that into the I don't know if it's theoa's database or whatever I understand that from talking to law enforcement that those tests we have to send off to another state so what do you foresee in the future that Arkansas would have the capability of actually performing that test here in
Speaker 28
21:09
at our crime lab yes sir. so genetic genealogy has been a a fantastic tool and
Speaker 29
21:15
what it has helped is supplement those cases that are not solved by COA. there are definitely times that the individual either missing or unidentified person or a perpetrator of a crime their profile is not in the COUS database and those cases have been identified especially through our cold case investigating teams throughout the state of identifying
cases that have a good DNA profile that are in COUS but they just have not gotten any type of lead they've exhausted all their investigative leads and that's where the success of genetic genealogy has been fantastic and so with that we do not have like in the next year we're not bringing that on but we are in the talks of what it would take, what it would look like to bring that on and what resources we would need at this time we are focused on working the cases that are coming in and getting
them into theoUS database and then seeing from there what we need after that
but you're getting a pretty quick turnaround I think it's is Texas the facility you're having to use
Speaker 31
22:23
now for those the author is the main laboratory that we have been utilizing for
Speaker 29
22:28
the genetic genealogy and and they've been very successful with the cases that we have sent with to them and that's one thing I will say we're very willing to help coordinate law enforcement's cases and help guide them whatever they need from us if
that's calling a laboratory if that's facilitating the transfer of evidence to another
Speaker 43
22:47
private laboratory to do this testing we're here to help
them do whatever they need for that excellent excellentwitching gears, I don't see any questions at this time but switching gears just a little bit I know years ago there was quite a bit of controversy concerning around the backlog of these sexual assault kits and I just like for the crime lab for y'all to update us where we're at have you been able to get that
information into the coldest data file is that backlog has it been taken care of so just elaborate on that for a
Speaker 29
23:22
few minutes please. sir and I will just a little background from me. I grew up in the world of DNA testing and I began supervising the DNA section whenever we got our first big wave of unsubmitted sexual assault kits across the state that got submitted to us and these kits were not submitted for various reasons and we had almost 2000
sexual assault kits submitted to us around 2016 and these kits varied in age some of the kids were almost 10,15 years old once we got them and so you can imagine we had quite a backlog of trying to test these kits on top of the kits that were coming in as current kits and with really due diligence and additional support from the legislators from the governor's office we were able to accomplish getting those kits tested and getting to where we are maintaining a 60
Speaker 31
24:18
dayy turnaround time as mandated by law on our reported sexual assault kits so that's where we
are with that perfect and I'm not sure if Arkansas if we have this or not and I was gonna try to visit with you to see if it's something we need to move forward with I know some states have it and we may have it it's called a tracking system where someone that's been involved in a sexual assault can anonymously go on have an Id go on to the system and be able to track the status of their
sexual assault kit and kind of keep them up to date a lot of transparency there I think it has really helps them that's been sexually assaulted to know the status of that and where that sexual assault kid is at so do we have that tracking system here in
Speaker 29
25:07
Arkansas yes sir we do so just for everyone's awareness the Arkansas Staterime lab provides barcoded sexual assault kits to medical facilities across the state so emergency rooms or whatever it may be that may be
providing the medical legal examination Every kit is barcoded and it is tracked in this tracking website that we also maintain and so we when somebody goes in to have a kit collected they are provided the barcode for their specific kit and they're able to enter that barcode into the system to see where it is in the process and that's you're exactly right that's what's created for transparency because too often people would have kits collected or they would have their children's kids collected
and they would have no idea of the status of that kit and so that was a great step moving to having that required and utilized for the kits that are collected
and and I thank you for that answer and I'm not sure that people really even in in the law enforcement community really understand the significance of this of this coda system and that's what you're talking about with these sexual assault kits and that the kids and thatdNA being entered into that system because I've talked to law enforcement officers that have
told me stories where they had entered that it may have been that assault may have taken place 1525 years ago and they had no suspect in the case but they did havedNA then they entered into that database that codas base that we're talking about and now this individual and I think you alluded to this a while ago they commit a crime in another state and and now all at once they have a suspect they've been this individual who has been arrested they obtained his DNA they enter into that base that database codas and there's a match for
this crime that occurred here in Arkansas 2025 years ago is do you see that playing out
Speaker 29
26:59
is that actually happening it's true so again that's my background is in forensic DNA testing and I would say that CODUS is probably one of the most important investigative tools that our agencies have especially when there is no suspect case it is one of the greatest tools and we have seen Arkansas cases solve cases across the US and vice versa cases across the US help solve
cases here in Arkansas about 1015 years ago there was a serial rapist case in North LittleRock they had no idea who the individual was. We entered this profile into after numerous processing of different pieces of evidence we finally got a good male DNA profile entered it into the system and it matched to an offender out of Texas. and so again without deotas database that association between that evidence and that offender would have never been made. so we're very proud of that database and we do everything we can to help
protect that database one of the biggest questions and one of the things that law enforcement also don't realize is they don't have to request us to enter it into the database. Our DNA analysts are trained to look at the case file, look at the DNA profile and assess does this qualify to go in the system if it qualifies it's going we are definitely doing that automatically without anybody having to request that being done.
excellent. you just answered my next question what type of corporation we're getting from law enforcement around the state is f making sure that with this information was furnished because we have to
get it in that coldest space for us to be successful in solving some of these crimes senator
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
28:36
ice thank you back on the thinking about the new facility and the needs I think you mentioned a while ago a couple of positions that would be coming or may have been filled or where you at looking at the new facility are we pretty well staffed now that will
be needed at that facility or we're gonna be needing to broaden that any because
not all these jobs are 5000 $0 entry jobs
Speaker 18
29:11
we know so yes sure so we've been very lucky with the crimeme lab. we do not have trouble filling vacancies and and we we never have it if we have a vacancy it's for some other reason with the new pay plan also we saw our applications for positions
double or triple. so that has certainly we we are certainly much more competitive in the country. there so right now for instance a a lot of the vacancies we have is due to our training is extremely long for a lot of these positions and by extremely long I mean 9 months up to 2 years depending on the position because most of the people we do have are coming straight out of
college or master's or PhD program so we we we are still not seeing many people with prior experience, coming in for those analyst positions so usually our vacancies are we've got so many people in training we need to take the time to get them finished up before we can take on new people. that's kind of where we're at. we do expect we're we're kind of just finishing a big ba t ch of training so we hope to be able to bring a
few new people online in the next year and if our our turnover rate remains low as it has been for about the past year and a half we fully expect to have the number of staff capable for the amount of cases
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
30:50
we're receiving right now. so so the normal turnover is in hand but with the new facility you don't see needing to expand a lot
Speaker 18
30:59
not at this moment I think is certainly the number of positions that we have appropriated is is appropriate
for the amount of cases that we're receiving in yes
Speaker 29
31:09
and I just want to add that's something that we definitely look at are the numbers every year, the requests that we're receiving and whether or not we're maintaining the appropriate staffing level to ensure we're getting that backlog knocked
Speaker 31
31:20
down and those cases turned around. Representative Superior recognized thank you
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
31:33
chair kind of jumping back to the forensic genealogy did you say
Speaker 28
31:38
that was a private company in Texas you utilize? yes sir and it's not us
Speaker 29
31:43
not the crime lab specifically utilizing it it's just tends to be one of the main companies that it selected to be utilized for those cases to be submitted to. OK.
Speaker 62
31:51
do you and you did you I think you did mention the name maybe Othram thank you sir thank you chair. There
were also a few of those companies around the country I I know there's one up I can't remember what state
it's in it's bold or BOd and I I've really heard great things about them as well as how fast the turnaround and and you know their their capabilities there so I'm sure you're familiar with them so we've got what3 or4 around the country that you're able to choose or pick and choose from that
Speaker 59
32:26
sir we definitely do and well I'm very familiar with Bodie we have a great working relationship with that laboratory as well and
Speaker 29
32:33
DNA Labs International is another one that you might hear from and again that's one thing I'm I'm very proud of its our partnerships and
collaboration with the different private laboratories to help ensure our law enforcement agencies get what they need. Exactly. so if
one's a little slow and in a quick turnaround you've got others to choose from and
I understand that's what you do so good for you ok Representative shepherd you're recognized for a question. Thank you Mr Chair and
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
33:05
and thank you all for being here today if I came in a little late so if you spoke on this already I
apologize the new drug is it yororphine and I think Arkansas saw its first related overdose death last month and this is what 10 times more potent than fentanyl. if you can speak more about how aggressive this drug is and if we're seeing
Speaker 18
33:33
other counterfeit drugs with this in it as well sure so starting back probably about4 or5 years ago we really saw great increase in counterfeit
drugs before that we were seeing a lot of your normal pharmaceutical drugs and then most of the the tablets we were getting in started being counterfeit and so we really saw that that big push there and and most are your your oxxycodone, oxxyContin pills that are being counterfeited and in yourXanax type type pills and and they're typically being counterfeited with a drug of the
same family but much more potent and not being you know not being created by a pharma ce ut ical company. so there's no quality control so you know one pill may have a correct amount in it the next one and we're talking grains of these drugs so if someone gets a little too heavyhanded you know one pill may be fine, the next pill is deadly and that's really where it comes in and so we were seeing fentanyl and the fentanyl analogs for quite a few years. I
think that a a lot of great work has been done in educating the public about that and so for a little while we saw the regular pharmaceuticals start to come back. you know, I think people were were scared of what was out there and these these counterfeit tablets are starting to look really really good. they they fool our drug chemists sometimes but certainly I think your normal you know member of the public would not notice the slight little differences that that
might be there between those and normal pharmaceutical tablets so to start to see that come back with a different drug and and and these are all just people out there trying to cut corners you know they they order a small bag of something that's super potent from from China or or something and are able to mix it in with very cheap ingredients and and make you know, millions of dollars worth of these tablets based on you know a few $1000 worth of what they had to
buy and so to see this is concerning other states kind of around us had seen it first we are you know with us being kind of internally in the country we do usually see things come from the coast or from the north or the south before it reaches here and so you know we had seen bulletins about this drug being seen elsewhere but you know we think it just goes to show how great our sections are different sections of the
laboratory working together can put together this information so quickly that we were able to get the counterfeit pill results the toxicology results, the autopsy results put those all together and see this is a problem and we need to make sure we're getting information out there as quickly as possible because you know most of these people taking counterfeit tablets they they are not trying to overdose and die and so that is education is one of the most important things
so we're doing a lot of work with the state drug director on trying to get with those educational and preventive services out there so that we can get the information to them as quickly as we possibly can so they can start getting the word out and and looking for areas of the state where you know if we start to see a certain area of the state we can really focus our efforts there and so we're doing a lot of work there with the state drug director to try to help combat that but but yes
this cyclorphine is is just another of the drugs that you know fentanyl they say is 100 times more potent than morphine and so the fact that this is even more potent than fentanyl. I mean there's just no way for you know these these unregulated laboratories to to
Speaker 72
37:44
make these drugs safely at all thank you you
just you just mentioned a bill that I think it was one that I actually sponsored about
for the toxicology reports would be shared with the drugs are for the state so they could compile data so that we could see what type of drugs were being used in certain areas of the state and be able for law enforcement to focus more in that area is that what you were talking about
Speaker 18
38:20
or yes that's exactly it. so we were at the time based on the statutes our our confidentiality statute we were having to give
very, you know, limited information to the state drug director so allowing that to be added to our statute allows that information to go straight there. we are still developing and we hope to go live with it by the end of this year and overdose dashboard so that would be something that our law enforcement partners preventive and treatment services could use and see in real time where those overdoses
are taking place what areas of the state we're seeing certain drugs in so we're really looking forward to being able to get that online we're working with the office of State Technology to get that dashboard built. and so the drug director's been great in helping with that but through the information we've already given them they've been able to focus those preventive and education you know components to certain areas of the state where we're seeing
the same drugs pop up over and over again, you know, and those deaths and and trying to link those even to you know supply chains and things like that I I think is very important and we'll be able to do a lot more of that
moving forward so thank thank you we appreciate that he and I appreciate
y'all I think we I think that was in 2025 that that that we passed that bill so it's just now really having time to to really show us some results from being
able to gather that information so there was another bill I can't remember if it was in 2025 or 2023. I sponsored the bill but it was what we were protected the they coroner's report from a criminal investigation from the toxicology reports that had to be returned to the corner once they sent it in from the crime lab have you found that that is that going pretty goods or is that something we need to improve on or did that help with the criminal investigations to make sure that
you know pertinent information involving those criminal investigation was not released before that investigation was complete. no, I would say that
Speaker 18
40:44
has been a smashing success. I speak with Kevin Cleghorn, the president of the corner association often and he is very grateful that he gets to tell people no when when when they ask for things so he gets to say we get to follow the crime lab rules now so no that's that's been
great and as you can imagine we get requests multiple requests daily for for records and and a lot of the records are you know, things you know, family members and and insurance companies and things that people need but with with podcasters and news organizations and citizen detectives and things like that to to have that that statute to stand behind and allow our records to be private and confidential and not you know
a lot of these autopsies you know these are the most difficult things a lot of these families will ever deal with in their entire lives and to make sure that people aren't out there just posting this information all over the place I think is is a great benefit that that we can offer in a great comfort to a lot of these people. I'm
glad, I'm glad to hear you say that have to be honest with you I spent37 years in law enforcement and when I found out that the coroner's report that
was submitted to the crime lab and then your toxicology report and all the information you referred to when it went back to the corners that was that was there for a while but for everybody to see and I was always thought that would have been protected as part of the criminal investigation but I found out it it wasn't so we was able thanks to this legislative body and their support wes able to pass legislation that protects that it protects the things that you just alluded to
which is extremely important to families that are having to deal with those issues so thank you for sharing that
Speaker 18
42:50
with us so yeah we're certainly grateful in the corners are definitely certainly grateful I I can
I can definitely say good deal so remember that bill I I could keep you here all day long I'm telling you I love this topic and I really enjoy learning up this has really been really informative and I'm
looking forward to that new program you've got coming out what was it overload
dashboard or did I it's it's gonna be an overdose dashboard overdose dashboard ok
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
43:26
when do you have an expectation on when that'll be
Speaker 18
43:30
rolled out? I I haven't heard an update myself on it. We did just get a report that was necessary in one of the programs that we use to pull pull the data out just came online at the end of last
month and so now we're we're working to with that info and the office of state Technology to get that on board. Michigan has a similar dashboard that's whererector Brown came from that's where he worked previously and so they basically gave us the the backbone of this dashboard to work with and so now it's just working with OST to put that information together that'd be
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:18
great.d I mean love to have a demonstration of it when it gets online for
Speaker 18
44:22
the subcommitteeertainly and and we'll definitely have a you know a big press release and
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:27
everything for that yeah press release is great but come here navigate through the dashboard with us and yeah, I think that would be
good. you got it following up on that yeah so we've got theakkota's program we've got the the dashboard program that's coming and it's it seemed like it was there was45 sessions ago or a few sessions ago that we ran legislation and what was that
problem was it is it name you or are you familiar with that I can't what is it?naus maybe it wasimus so that required law enforcement if it was a missing person or a cold case I'm not real sure I'm saying all this correctly but it just vaguely remember it but they were required to submit that information to the crime lab. Is that is that correct or submit that into that database and it was name us is that what you're saying is we do have
Speaker 29
45:22
nameus and we have access to name that we utilize for our missing and unidentified remains in which there's no idea of well on the missing people you know we have information that's uploaded for that and then on the unidentified set our medical examiners receive they will upload information regarding that unidentified remains such as tattoos or if there's any clothing just to help in the identification of that I have very limited information on that but it is a program that we utilize quite
often. Will you could tell I was kind of limited on my information concerning it too but you made
Speaker 18
45:59
me think of that when I was listening to this other show and I'll say I actually just looked at this statute today so this may be part of it. I don't know when this was added but it does require the coroners to send unidentified remains to the crime lab to have any sort of medical and scientific analysis done on them that's necessary
Speaker 14
46:20
and then we enter it into that system before we return the
remains back to the county that they
came from that helped explain I knew there was something I was trying to remember so actually this is where the genetic gene genealogy that you referred to a while ago this kind of ties in with it as far as law enforcement is concerned
Speaker 31
46:40
that concerned does it not one of the unidentified remains are a significant portion of the cases that
Speaker 29
46:46
we have sent out and name this actually will fund some of the identification so they will contact us on occasion saying
hey we have we have funds that you can utilize to help send this for forensic genetic genealogy and so we have utilized funds from Nama to help identify individuals so
man and and I'll let you go I'll just make this comment and well I know I talked to a law enforcement officer here the last a few weeks ago and he was telling me that he had gotten a call from an investigator in another state and they had
found a skeleton in that state and they were able to do this forensic genetic geology test on it and it came back that they had a relative that traced it back to a relative here in Arkansas so that investigator calls law enforcement here and says hey we've got this skeleton but you've got a relative there you know it's connected from our genetic test here in Arkansas would you go speak to this
individual and see you know if they've got
a family member that's been
Speaker 29
48:04
like golly it is it's amazing it really is and just for clarification there is a separate database so COU database is for your standard DNA profile the database that is used for genetic genealogy is something completely differentdiviuals that have utilized the private
DNA testing like ancestry for ancestry testing a lot of the data on those databases is contained from that and so it's completely separate database than what we utilize at the at the crimeme laboratory I see I see no
further questions from committee members cochair do you have any closing comments just really appreciate the information.lad
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
48:51
y'all are here and look forward to the follow up
Thank you cochair and I really appreciate y'all being here this is really I I've really enjoyed this personally it's just so much and if you can think of something that we need to do that we haven't done just holler at me or any member of this committee or any legislator as far as future legislation that we could hopefully introduce and pass that would just make you know solving these crimes and bringing these criminals to justice that's that's what we want to do so if we can help you in any way let us know
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
49:29
and seeing no further questions can say members of the committee august in august we're gonna try we're gonna ben is here with the game and fish. thank you ben for being here. if you have questions for them but in august we're going to try to do a tour site visit tour of Lake Conway and the dam project there. as you know it's a big deal so we're a we'll get information out to
what to wear. do not wear what we have
on today so we will be out in potentially trucks or side by sides or whatever out looking at that big Lake Conway project so we look forward to doing that in august thank you co
chair thank y'all again for being hereittee members this meeting is adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Comments by Co-Chairs
C. Overview of Arkansas State Crime Laboratory
D. Other Business
E. Adjournment
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Representative Dwight Tosh Chair
Unverified
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 14
Speaker 16
Speaker 18
Speaker 22
Speaker 24
Speaker 29
Speaker 33
Speaker 35
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 28
Speaker 31
Speaker 43
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
Speaker 62
Speaker 59
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
Speaker 72
Speaker 63