Drugs, sex offenders and a new wiretapping system are some of the topics covered in the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s annual report to the Kansas Legislature.

The eight-page report, issued earlier this month by KBI Director and Lawrence resident Larry Welch, is a yearly update on law-enforcement trends in the state written in the form of a letter.

Because of added KBI chemists, the department’s average turnaround time on drug cases has decreased from 76 days in 2001 to 12 days in 2005, Welch wrote. But the department has backlogs in the areas of DNA evidence, toxicology reports and fingerprints.

The department also has “deficiencies” in its system for monitoring registered offenders, Welch wrote. After a report last year found that officials had lost track of 13 people on the registry, the KBI directed sheriff’s offices statewide to pay closer attention to monitoring them.

Welch wrote that the lab backlogs and the problems with tracking offenders could be helped by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ budget recommendations, which call for adding new KBI employees in those areas.

Another subject mentioned is that the office has received a new $500,000 wiretap system through the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, D.C.

“Potentially a powerful weapon against drug trafficking operations and/or terrorism, please be assured that any KBI wiretaps have been, and shall be, based on court orders and/or warrants,” Welch wrote in the report.

Welch wrote that an estimated 80 percent of the methamphetamine in the state is coming from Mexico, not from Kansas. He said a 2005 law that restricted the sale of over-the-counter drugs used to make meth would allow his agents to spend less time fighting meth labs and more time fighting the importing and trafficking of the drug.

Also, Welch wrote that computer-related crimes – including child pornography and people who solicit sex from children online – are “the fastest-growing criminal activity in our state and nation.”