Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jan 2005
Source: Joplin Globe, The (MO)
Section: In Our View
Copyright: 2005 The Joplin Globe
Contact:  http://www.joplinglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/859

STATE SHOULD FUND MSSU CRIME LAB

The Missouri State Highway Patrol's crime laboratory in Jefferson City 
needs help. The backlog of 5,000 cases is making it "impossible to keep 
up," according to the lab director. The lag time on those cases can run 
from three months to a year.

Springfield wants the patrol's satellite crime lab there expanded and moved 
into a building being purchased by the city. Currently, the Springfield lab 
does drug chemistries and blood alcohol testing, but not DNA tests, blood 
toxicology or ballistics.

Relief is necessary if the Jefferson City lab is to complete in a timely 
manner the many thousands of tests required to process cases quickly and 
efficiently through the state's criminal justice system. Much of the logjam 
can be attributed to Missouri's meth problem, which has figuratively -- 
and, at times, literally -- exploded in recent years.

The solution being proposed by Springfield makes sense. But so, too, does 
asking the state to take over funding of the Missouri Southern State 
University crime lab, which compiled an enviable record of turning around 
evidence in a little over two months. That turnaround is the fastest among 
the state's regional crime labs.

Missouri Southern's lab has been a valuable asset for 30 years for regional 
law enforcement agencies in processing criminal evidence as well as for 
training officers in forensic science. But the MSSU lab was seriously hurt 
when the city of Joplin -- unwisely, we believe -- decided to withdraw its 
financial support and send evidence to the state's laboratory system. The 
city saved less than $100,000 annually while adding 800 or so local cases 
to the Highway Patrol's backlog.

The city of Joplin should re-establish its working relationship with the 
MSSU crime lab, at least until the Legislature has the opportunity to 
consider picking up the lab's costs. Meanwhile, state funding for the 
regional crime labs, including Missouri Southern's, should be given a 
priority in the new session.

If the Jefferson City laboratory is already buried beneath 5,000 cases, 
adding even more cases makes no sense. In the long run, better funding for 
Southern's lab could expedite the handling of evidence and speed up the 
disposition of cases.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman