But in the real world, crime analysis takes longer, and Wisconsin crime labs have had trouble keeping up in recent years.

To help cut down on the backlog of DNA cases waiting to be analyzed, a state committee approved 31 new crime lab jobs Wednesday.,”

Anything can happen on television. On detective dramas, complicated and unusual crimes are solved in less than an hour.

But in the real world, crime analysis takes longer, and Wisconsin crime labs have had trouble keeping up in recent years.

To help cut down on the backlog of DNA cases waiting to be analyzed, a state committee approved 31 new crime lab jobs Wednesday.

The state crime labs currently have a backlog of 1,785 cases, said Eric Schutt, spokesman for Rep. Kitty Rhoades (R-Hudson).

Wisconsin has crime labs in Wausau, Madison and Milwaukee, but only the latter two are equipped to analyze DNA. These labs received 2,226 cases last year.

According to Kevin St. John, spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, the state crime labs analyzed a little more than half of DNA cases received in 2006.

"The process of analyzing a case takes significantly more time than people think," St. John said. "From TV, people think they (the analysts) can do it all in the blink of an eye."

St. John said both the Madison and Milwaukee labs will probably get the new hires since both labs receive around the same number of cases each year.

The state crime labs prioritize DNA analysis on a case-by-case basis. St. John said analysts discuss the urgency of each case with officials from local law enforcement agencies such as the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office. Contributing factors to a case's importance are typically court dates and court orders.

"Forensic scientists are trained professionals who work with a specific discipline," St. John said.

He said people are often confused because on television one investigator or analyst works a case through the entire process, from fingerprinting to DNA analysis. But in reality, analysts are tied to one specific discipline.

Gov. Jim Doyle proposed hiring 15 new analysts in his budget. Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said he wanted to eliminate the case backlog but couldn't do so with only 15 hires.

According to Carrie Lynch, spokeswoman for Sen. Russ Decker (D-Weston), the Joint Legislative Committee on Finance approved 31 analysts because of Van Hollen's desire to eliminate the backlog by 2010.

He said the hiring period lasts six months and new analysts have an additional one year training period.

The longer the department waits, the more positions it would need to erase the backlog, Schutt said.

Both houses of the state legislature and the governor must approve the new hires. Fifteen of the 31 would be hired immediately and the other 16 would be hired in July.

According to Schutt, the backlog would grow so much between now and July that if the department waited until budget approval in July, it would need to hire 37 analysts instead of 31.

"Any bit we delay, it pushes back the cases in the backlog," Schutt said.

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