Arizona DPS to Close Western Regional Crime Lab?

One way Arizona Department of Public Safety is con­sid­er­ing cut­ting it’s bud­get is to elim­i­nate the west­ern regional crime lab.

Another pos­si­bil­ity is the clo­sure of the Western Regional Crime Lab in Lake Havasu City and elim­i­nat­ing four posi­tions there. Law enforce­ment agen­cies would then have to trans­port crime evi­dence to the Flagstaff lab. The esti­mated sav­ings to DPS for the lab clo­sure is about $191,700 for six months.

The loss of the lab would mean the capac­ity to process evi­dence would be reduced by 1,500 sub­mis­sions a year. The Lake Havasu City crime lab processes evi­dence from crim­i­nal cases in La Paz and Yuma coun­ties as well as Mohave County.

Sheriff Tom Sheahan said evi­dence col­lected by his detec­tives and deputies would have to be taken to the Flagstaff lab, plac­ing an addi­tional bur­den and tak­ing more time to get back test results.

Kingman Police Department Lt. Rusty Cooper said the lab clo­sure would sig­nif­i­cantly impact his depart­ment. The Lake Havasu City lab cur­rently han­dles KPD’s drug pro­cess­ing, blood evi­dence and latent fin­ger­print exams. If the Lake Havasu City lab closes, the Flagstaff lab would see a larger increase in case loads, which would affect the turn­around time for lab results.

“This is espe­cially crit­i­cal for mis­de­meanor cases that are required to be filed within six months,” Cooper said.

Does clos­ing the lab for finan­cial rea­sons out weight the poten­tial threat to pub­lic safety? Comment below.

Read the entire arti­cle in the Mojave Daily News.