41-1730. Department of public safety forensics fund; purposes; distributions; definition

A. The department of public safety forensics fund is established.  The department shall administer the fund. Monies in the fund are subject to legislative appropriation. The department of public safety forensics fund consists of the following:

1. Monies deposited pursuant to section 12-116.01, subsection J.

2. Monies deposited pursuant to section 41-2401, subsection D, paragraphs 1 and 10.

3. Surcharge monies deposited pursuant to section 28-3396.

4. Monies contributed to the fund from any other source.

B. Monies in the department of public safety forensics fund shall be used for the following purposes:

1. Purchasing and installing fingerprint identification equipment.

2. Operating, maintaining and administering the Arizona automated fingerprint identification system and the system's remote terminals.

3. Crime laboratory operations and enhanced services.

4. Educating and training forensic scientists who are regularly employed in a crime laboratory.

5. Purchasing and maintaining scientific equipment for crime laboratory use.

6. Implementing, operating and maintaining deoxyribonucleic acid testing and administering the Arizona deoxyribonucleic acid identification system.

C. On a quarterly basis, the department of public safety shall allocate and distribute the monies in the department of public safety forensics fund that are collected pursuant to section 12-116.01 and deposited pursuant to section 41-2401, subsection D, paragraph 10 to each full-service crime laboratory.

D. The distribution of monies pursuant to subsection C of this section shall be determined annually based on the proportion of crimes reported to the department for the most recent year for the jurisdiction or jurisdictions where each full-service crime laboratory provides full-service crime laboratory services in relation to the total number of crimes reported in all jurisdictions in this state. The minimum allocation for a political subdivision that provides full-service crime laboratory services is four percent. For the purposes of this subsection:

1. In fiscal years 2023-2024, 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, the department shall calculate the number of crimes reported in accordance with the federal bureau of investigation's uniform crime reporting program summary reporting system classification criteria.

2. In fiscal year 2026-2027 and each fiscal year thereafter, the department shall calculate the number of crimes reported in accordance with the federal bureau of investigation's uniform crime reporting program national incident-based reporting system classification criteria.

E. Subsection D of this section applies only to the department of public safety forensics fund and may not be used in the distribution of other grants or monies.

F. For the purposes of this section, "full-service crime laboratory" means a laboratory that meets all of the following:

1. Is operated by a criminal justice agency of the state or a political subdivision.

2. Has at least one full-time forensic scientist who holds a minimum of a bachelor's degree in a physical or natural science.

3. Is registered as an analytical laboratory with the drug enforcement administration of the United States department of justice for the possession of all scheduled controlled substances.

4. Is accredited by an organization that provides accreditation based on the international laboratory accreditation cooperation G19 and standard ISO/IEC 17025 or standard ISO/IEC 17020 or any relevant field specific standards.

5. Provides a minimum of six forensic disciplines in the following areas, at least one of which must be DNA, digital forensics or drug toxicology:

(a) Trace evidence.

(b) Blood or breath alcohol.

(c) Firearms and toolmarks.

(d) Crime scene processing.

(e) Latent print comparisons.

(f) Seized drugs.

(g) DNA.

(h) Digital forensics.

(i) Drug toxicology.