Work is proceeding on a forensic crime lab for Jefferson County.
The Jefferson County Council voted 6-0 March 13 to approve a budget transfer that will allow the Sheriff’s Office to pay for design work for a lab to be built in Pevely.
The vote allows the Sheriff’s Office to pay Hastings and Chivetta Architects of St. Louis County up to $690,000 to design a lab that will process evidence associated with crimes.
“We’re paying the firm out of our reserve account because we believe it’s important to get this project done as quickly as possible,” said Lt. Col. Tim Whitney, the undersheriff.
The cost to build the structure is estimated at $4 million, but Whitney cautioned that’s a very preliminary figure.
“We’ll know more once we get detailed plans back from the design phase,” he said.
A building of 9,000 to 10,000 square feet is expected to be built on Mason Circle North in Pevely, next to an existing evidence storage facility.
The new building will include areas for processing DNA evidence, vehicles, fingerprints, firearms and drug tests. A separate area would be devoted to computer crime investigations.
Whitney said the Hastings and Chievetta firm already had completed preliminary drawings on speculation, but the County Council needed to approve the budget amendment before the rest of the design work could proceed.
“And we want it to proceed,” he said. “Every day that goes by without our investigators having access to forensic testing and our prosecutors having access to crime reports creates an opportunity for the victims of crime in our county being denied justice.”
Last year Sheriff Dave Marshak told the County Council that the local lab was needed because the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s lab in Jefferson City, which processes evidence from county and city law enforcement agencies around the state, can sometimes take up to a year to process evidence.
“We don’t believe that’s acceptable,” Whitney said.
St. Charles County, St. Louis County and St. Louis operate similar crime labs.
Jefferson County officials have said they expect to pay for at least some of the cost to build the lab – and the estimated $1 million to $1.5 million to equip it – through the county’s allotment of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) stimulus plan.
“We’ll know more about how much the lab might cost once the architectural plans are drawn up.”
Whitney said he doesn’t know how many jobs the new lab would create.
“I think the plan is to build on it over time. How many are working there in Year 3 will probably be different from when it opens. Our first priority is to hire a director, who then will guide us in the accreditation process.
“I can tell you, I’m excited at the prospect of interviewing scientists,” he said. “I’ve interviewed lots of police officers and lots of corrections officers, but I’ve never had to hire a biologist.”
While the Sheriff’s Office maintains a small lab in Hillsboro and has four top-notch crime scene analysts, county officials have said the existing lab can’t be expanded, especially with the equipment needed for DNA work.
In his recent State of the County address, County Executive Dennis Gannon said one of his goals was to see ground broken for a crime lab this year.
“That’s our goal, too,” Whitney said.