Grants fund new initiatives for Attorney General’s Office
Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office has been awarded four federal grants totaling more than $2 million to create a Cold Case Unit, increase equipment to its Digital Forensics Unit and add three lethality assessment protocol training coordinators to the Victim Services Unit.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office has been awarded four federal grants totaling more than $2 million to create a Cold Case Unit, increase equipment to its Digital Forensics Unit and add three lethality assessment protocol training coordinators to the Victim Services Unit.
“I am grateful this funding will enhance the services my office is able to provide to other law enforcement agencies, to prosecutors and to victims of domestic violence,” Drummond said.
A $500,000 Bureau of Justice Assistance Grant will fund the creation of a Cold Case Unit to provide support for coldcase prosecutions across Oklahoma. According to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Oklahoma has 3,838 unmatched forensic DNA profiles within the Combined DNA Index System.
The grant will partially fund one full-time agent, one parttime agent and one full-time criminal intelligence analyst for three years. Unit staff will create a comprehensive inventory of all violent crime cold cases in Oklahoma in which a suspect’s DNA profile has already been established. The inventory will include both known and unknown DNA profiles. Staff will investigate violent cold case crimes, testify in court and submit suspect DNA for further genetic testing.
The unit is expected to generate an increase in both the number of suspects identified through forensic genetic genealogy and in successful prosecutions of violent crime cold cases in Oklahoma.
A second Bureau of Justice Assistance Grant, totaling $300,482, will fund new equipment to help the Digital Forensics Unit improve its processing time for evidence used in prosecutions. The unit is one of only two fully equipped digital forensics units in the state. In addition to supporting prosecutions by the Attorney General’s office, the unit is utilized by 29 other entities. Since the unit’s creation a year ago, its case load has increased by more than 100 percent.
The Victim Services Unit will utilize a pair of grants to bolster the implementation of the Oklahoma Lethality Assessment Protocol (LAP) and enhance its services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. LAP is used by law enforcement to identify intimate partner violence victims who are at high risk of homicide so they can be connected with support services. The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office on Violence Against Women awarded the office $994,032 to add two LAP training coordinators to the unit who will implement a statewide training and awareness campaign on best practices. Moreover, the grant will add law enforcement agencies to a new digital database that will streamline referrals to domestic violence and sexual assault service providers.
A $227,339 DOJ grant administered by the Oklahoma District Attorneys Council will add a third training coordinator to the unit to assist with the LAP training and implementation effort. The grant applications were based on recommendations by the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board.
