The Kansas Bureau of Investigation labs must act to regain the confidence of Kansas residents.

This is a case where saying you’re sorry just doesn’t cut it. On Thursday, Larry Welch, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, apologized for a DNA processing error that led to a significant delay in identifying a rape suspect in McPherson County. In 1991, KBI’s lab mislabeled a blood sample from Douglas S. Belt. In the last 12 years, the mistake, which Welch called “simple but serious” apparently was compounded several times over by subsequent criminal activity by Belt. He has been charged with seven rapes that occurred in Kansas between 1989 and 1994 and a 1992 sexual assault in Illinois.

It was not until a new DNA sample was taken from Belt after he was arrested in the June 2002 death and decapitation of a Wichita woman that the mistake was discovered. When a DNA sample taken last December linked Belt to the 1991 rape and evidence in other rapes, questions began to be asked.

It was about time.

The KBI messed up the DNA sample in 1991, but it had another chance to correct its mistake. Between October 1995 and March 1999, Belt was convicted three times of theft, burglary and drug charges, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections. As a convicted felon, Belt was required to submit a DNA sample in January 2002. That sample, taken five months before the killing for which Belt now faces first-degree murder charges, had not been processed by the KBI by early this week, almost 18 months after it was taken.

According to an Associated Press report, Welch said the KBI lab has a backlog of more than 20,000 samples of DNA from convicted fellows waiting to be catalogued. Welch should not bear all the blame for this situation because state legislators have failed to fund the KBI at a sufficient level to perform the services it is asked to provide.

Obviously more than one error was involved here, and the situation not only invites lawsuits from those affected by Belt but diminishes the public’s confidence in a crime laboratory that is crucial to criminal convictions in the state. Welch defended the KBI lab by saying it wasn’t the only lab in the country that had a backlog of evidence waiting to be processed.

This is cold comfort for Kansans who depend on KBI information to help prosecute the state’s most notorious crimes. It was a no-brainer for Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline to order an outside audit of the KBI labs after learning about the DNA debacle. Welch says he is confident that problems at the lab are not widespread, but there really is no way to know that without a thorough review.

Mistakes and months-long delays in processing important criminal evidence pose a danger to Kansans and demand prompt investigation and action.

Welch has compiled a fine record with the KBI, but he has been handicapped by the lack of state funding. Kansans have reason to be hopeful that the audit will expose what the bureau needs to property perform its duties. Given the proper resources, Welch can deliver an excellent investigative agency for the state.