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The effort to unclog the state Crime Laboratory's backlog of DNA cases got a major boost this week as 27 new analysts — a nationally "unprecedented" number, according to state officials — moved into their new digs in Madison and Milwaukee.

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said he still expects the crime lab, a division of the Department of Justice, to clear its DNA backlog by 2010, which the Republican promised when he asked the Legislature for the new positions soon after taking office last year.

Even before the new analysts completed their training, the lab processed 321 DNA cases in May, up from fewer than a hundred cases per month as recently as 2006. The lab has processed 1,274 DNA cases through the first five months of this year, compared with 1,983 in all of 2007 and 1,152 in all of 2006.

November was the first month since Van Hollen took office when the lab processed more cases than it received and it has done so three of the first five months this year.

"We're setting records and we will set more records," Van Hollen said at a press conference Wednesday. "Hopefully other states will follow our example to clear their backlogs."

Van Hollen hedged a bit on the 2010 pledge, saying it's difficult to know what kind of cases would arise between now and then and noting senior analysts would be spending some time in the coming months supervising the new hires. The Legislature approved 30 new DNA analyst positions and a lab technician in March 2007 — doubling the existing DNA testing staff for about $1.5 million.

Three recruits did not complete the year-long training program, and the lab is in the process of filling those positions, Van Hollen said.

The crime lab, which analyzes DNA, fingerprint, firearm and other evidence from police agencies around the state, also had the size of its DNA lab space in Madison tripled at a cost of $4.8 million. Eight of the new hires were assigned to the Milwaukee lab.

The DNA backlog ballooned starting in 2003 as the popularity of DNA evidence skyrocketed among law enforcement agencies. Van Hollen campaigned on the issue in the 2006 election.

Former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, a Democrat who lost her bid for re-election in the 2006 primary, commissioned a study in 2005 that recommended efficiency improvements at the center, which included robots to help process samples. The first robotic equipment, which can process up to 96 samples at once, was purchased in fall 2006 and was up and running by May 2007.

When Van Hollen took office in January 2007, evidence from 1,785 cases awaited DNA testing, up from 478 in 2003. After increasing to more than 1,900 cases last year, the backlog shrank to 1,637 last month.

In addition to the three new robotic machines in Madison and two in Milwaukee, the lab began to track its inventory and records electronically, moved its felon database from Milwaukee to Madison, and worked with police agencies to limit the number of samples being processed for each case.

All of those factors are helping increase the number of cases being processed each month, said crime lab director and former Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin.

In a February 2007 report to the Legislature, Van Hollen said efficiency measures at the center would only go so far in stemming the backlog. He asked the Legislature to approve 31 positions in a budget repair bill instead of the 15 proposed by Gov. Jim Doyle.

The new hires came aboard in July and were the first in the nation to be trained by the Largo, Fla.,-based National Forensic Science Technology Center. The center obtained a grant from the National Institute of Justice and provided the training at the Madison lab.

Most labs train a handful of new recruits each year by having them shadow senior analysts. Wisconsin was the first state crime lab to train with the institute through the federal grant program.

"Quite frankly, we weren't sure how well it would work," Hamblin said.

One of the new DNA analysts, Amy Buscher, 32, a Minocqua native who earned her Ph.D. in microbiology from Washington University in St. Louis, said the new class is well aware of its role in helping Wisconsin law enforcement agencies solve crimes faster.

"Now that we're all trained and here, I really feel like the backlog will go down," Buscher said.