Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak has an idea how to spend some of the $43.7 million the county will receive over the next two years through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
At a March 7 Jefferson County Council work session, Marshak outlined plans for a 10,000-square-foot facility to be built next to or attached to the Sheriff’s Office evidence storage facility in Pevely. He said the crime lab would be housed in the facility, which could be paid for through the stimulus plan.
Marshak said a crime lab is needed.
“I think this is essential for the community and the citizens of Jefferson County,” Marshak said. “Unlike St. Charles County, St. Louis County and St. Louis City, Jefferson County does not have its own crime lab with DNA and drug analysis capabilities. As a result, we compete with more than 100 counties and hundreds of police departments from around the state to have the Missouri Highway Patrol lab in Jefferson City process our evidence.”
Marshak said it can take eight to 13 months to get results back from the Highway Patrol’s facility.
“That’s just not acceptable,” he said. “And this shouldn’t be taken as an indictment on the Highway Patrol. They’re doing their best with the resources they have. I know they are overwhelmed.”
Marshak said evidence includes samples of body fluids found at crime scenes and DNA samples.
“DNA has become the gold standard for subject comparisons,” he said.
In addition to the long wait for tests, because of volume, the Highway Patrol limits what kinds of evidence it will process, Marshak said.
“They pick and choose what they examine,” he said.
Generally, Marshak said, the lab will prioritize DNA samples dealing with violent crimes and will not process those involved in property crimes.
“That hampers our ability to strengthen cases for our prosecutors,” he said.
Marshak cited the example of thefts from the Sapaugh GMC auto dealership lot in Herculaneum.
“We found a cloth glove in one of the stolen autos,” he said. “That would have been an excellent source of DNA. But they wouldn’t touch that glove because it was a property crime.”
Marshak said if Jefferson County established its own crime lab, it would expedite prosecution times and help keep violent offenders off the streets.
“Often, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office cannot file criminal charges until lab results return,” he said. “Suspects are too often allowed to roam and commit more crimes while we wait for the lab results. Those lab results might be for drug analysis or matching DNA from semen and other fluids. Sex offenders or rapists should not be free for eight months while we are waiting for lab results.
“For ongoing cases, a prosecutor may ask for additional testing to strengthen his or her case. Having local experts available to testify also will further strengthen their cases.”
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Travis Partney agreed.
“Our county handles the same number of cases as St. Charles County,” he said. “They have a lab. We don’t. If we had our own lab, the number of cases we could prosecute faster would be significantly higher.
“We legally can’t go forward with many cases without evidence in hand. When you’re waiting weeks and months for that evidence to be analyzed, that’s a big problem.”
Partney recalled one case involving the suspected murder of a teenager when too much time elapsed between when the evidence kit was assembled and when technicians in Jefferson City had a chance to analyze it.
“They said they weren’t going to test it,” he said. “That is a big problem.”
Marshak said if the county had its own crime lab, local officials could prioritize what gets processed.
While the Sheriff’s Office maintains a small lab in Hillsboro and has four top-notch crime scene investigators or analysts, Marshak said the lab can’t be expanded, especially with the equipment needed for DNA work.
He said he hoped to outfit a new lab with a rapid DNA machine, which he said can turn around a DNA comparison in about 90 minutes. That piece of equipment, he said, runs about $200,000.
“Crime is not going away,” he said. “Our county is growing. The more cases we solve, the more it will have a regional impact.”
Because criminals cross county lines, Marshak said, solving a case in Jefferson County could lead to closing cases elsewhere.
A lab also would allow the Sheriff’s Office to expand its efforts to combat computer crimes, he said.
“More than 85 percent of crime nowadays involves some kind of technology use,” he said. “This is an area of law enforcement that needs more focused attention.”
He said if the County Council agrees to allow ARPA money to be used for the crime lab, he would look to hire a director who would help decide the design and develop the processes the lab would employ.
Having a director in place before the lab opens, Marshak said, would speed the process to having it accredited.
Marshak estimates that it might take $4 million to build the lab and another $1 million to $1.5 million to equip it.
“All that is under negotiation,” he said.
County Executive Dennis Gannon said if ARPA funding isn’t enough, he hoped money from the upcoming Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed by Congress in late 2021, would cover the rest.
While many of the council members seemed enthusiastic about the idea, no vote was taken at the work session.