Outsourcing Considerations

Lack of Capacity

The lack of capacity is one of the primary reasons agencies employ outsourcing practices. Outsourcing is often used to alleviate acute or chronic resource issues at the public crime laboratory. Diminished capacity can result from the temporary or permanent loss of staff and/or facilities, inability to hire replacement staff due to budget constraints, or disasters that impact the laboratory facility.

Laboratories operating at normal capacity may experience rising case submissions at rates faster than the laboratory can accommodate. Reasons for this vary and can include the closing of other laboratories in the system or discovery of a large number of unworked cases within an agency submitting to the laboratory.