BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – There is currently evidence at the Bexar County Crime Lab that has been untouched and uninspected for more than a year.
“We’re getting anywhere between six to seven hundred cases a month right now,” Bexar County Crime Lab director Orin Dym said. “So, the goal is, obviously, we have to be able to work what’s coming in plus more than that to eat away at the backlog.”
Dym said there are more than 4,500 drug, gun and DNA cases of evidence sitting at the lab waiting to be analyzed. According to Dym, some of those cases date back to June 2023.
Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai addressed concerns that the evidence backlog could affect people going through the justice system.
“There is (sic) all ways of mechanisms in our criminal justice system to address those situations where a delay in the crime lab is denying people their justice,” Sakai said. “And that’s why I put the foot to the pedal, so to speak.”
Sakai and county officials have allocated portions of the county budget to help fill four lab positions and allow lab personnel to work overtime.
“One of my operational goals with the discipline is, by Feb. 2025 — that’s coming up — we should not have anything on our roster from 2023,” Dym said.
The lab has made strides to cut into the backlog of more severe cases, Dym said. During the past year, the crime lab has cut the backlog of sexual assault cases by 72%.
Dym said the majority of the backlog now is drug-related cases.
“The trend we have been seeing the past year-and-a-half that’s interesting is the percentage of marijuana cases being submitted has tripled,” Dym said.
Sakai said he wants to work closely with the lab as it continues reducing its caseload to ensure no case is compromised.
“I have to be respectful of those lab technicians and people that do the crime analysis in that crime lab, that they’re during thorough and quality work,” Sakai said.
