The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors has reportedly restored the Connecticut State Crime Lab’s accreditation, paving the way for it to once again gain access to the FBI DNA data bank, which in turn should help reduce a backlog of criminal cases in the state.

On Tuesday Governor Dannel P. Malloy announced that the crime lab’s accreditation had been restored, in part thanks to the efforts of a special panel he formed last August to review lab operations and form a consensus on how to prioritize requests for testing. When the crime lab lost its accreditation in July 2011 it lost access to the FBI’s national database. As a result, it could not compare DNA evidence found at a crime scenes against a national pool.

“…years of allowing dwindling resources for the lab resulted in an intolerable backlog and undermined our criminal justice system,” Gov. Malloy said in a statement. “My administration will continue its efforts to implement improved procedures and provide the critical resources necessary, so that once again the crime lab will be a national model. I’m also very grateful to the work of the lab’s scientists who over the past six months have worked to make sure this would happen.”

In August, shortly after the formation of the panel, Gov. Malloy announced that funding had been authorized to increase staffing at the lab, which is located in Meriden.

Redding Police Chief Douglas S. Fuchs, who is also chairman of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, recently said he was disappointed in the loss of accreditation and resulting backlog of cases — however he acknowledged that “submissions from municipal police departments make up a large percentage of the lab’s work and contribute to the backlog.”

"We are very gratified to learn that the State Lab has been able to gain their accreditation back and we will continue to work with the Lab and Major Podgorski to alleviate the backlog in an effort ensure that all evidence can be processed in a timely manner," Chief Fuchs said in an email to Patch Wednesday.