Ohio’s state crime labs are processing DNA and other forensic work at a record pace after hiring more lab scientists and reviewing procedures, according to reports from the attorney general and Ohio Highway Patrol.

Attorney General Mike DeWine on Friday released information showing the Bureau of Criminal Investigation lab in London cut the average turnaround time to analyze DNA and forensic biology evidence from 99 days in January 2012 to about 20 in December 2012. The BCI averaged 125 days in December 2010, which DeWine called unacceptable when he began his term in January 2011.

“This is a matter sometimes of life or death; this is a matter of protecting the public,” DeWine said. “If you wait 125 days to get a hit… that means that for 125 days that rapist has been loose and maybe we could have caught him.”

The turnaround time for the two processes averaged about 62 days during 2012, according to our Columbus bureau’s examination of BCI data. DeWine said he did not have information about previous averages. The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported in 2010 that the BCI averaged 71 days in processing DNA evidence that year.

DeWine did not dispute those numbers, saying the count likely only included DNA processing.

DeWine told reporters that decreasing the turnaround time has been a priority and money from other areas was diverted to fund the changes. The BCI lab added 24 scientists, doubled the number of DNA testing robots from six to 12 and reduced the number of steps to complete analyzing evidence. The BCI lab went from 99 employees at the end of 2010 to 148 today.

“If we’re backed up at the lab, everything else is backed up in the judicial system,” DeWine said.

The BCI lab processes about 5,300 cases each month — about half the lab work done in the state. DeWine said about 90 percent of the state’s police departments send work to the BCI for free analysis.

The Ohio Highway Patrol Lab plans to become more efficient using some of the same methods as the BCI lab. Highway Patrol sends DNA evidence to the BCI lab, but analyzes blood and urine samples and identifies drugs and other substances for the patrol and other law enforcement agencies across the state, said spokesperson Lt. Anne Ralston.

The lab reported a backlog of 4,069 cases in August 2011 and a turnaround timeline of 83 days.

Leon Daidone, chief of the criminal division at the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, said any improvement in the processing time speeds up the time to indict or charge a suspect or identify a witness.

“DNA evidence is a powerful tool and you have to use that evidence and tool how it relates to your case,” Daidone said. “Many times it helps take us to the people involved, but it has to be balanced, evaluated with other evidence.”

Daidone said most of the county’s evidence is analyzed by the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory, but the BCI lab is used to match DNA against state and national databases. Turnaround time for such matches was cut by two-thirds last year.

For example, the database helped Englewood police identify a suspect in a 10-year-old rape case in 2011. Changes in state law required all felony arrestees to submit DNA to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) linking national and state databases, beginning in July 2011.

Robert S. Bernardi plead guilty to the 2001 rape of a 14-year-old girl and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Since 2011, 730 arrestees have been matched to DNA involved in open cases, according to the attorney general’s office.