NC crime lab’s expansion shows government responding well

Government can work. And it does. Evidence: a new crime lab in Henderson County, in western North Carolina, that will focus on drug evidence, important in terms of fighting the opioid epidemic that’s increasingly a reason for more crime. The lab’s additional personnel will be able to process more investigations of DNA evidence, which will also make a difference in finishing work on a backlog of rape kits.

For the lab to open, then-Attorney General Roy Cooper (now governor) had to push for it, and state lawmakers had to approve it, a bipartisan effort. Josh Stein, now attorney general and, before his service as a state senator, an official under Cooper, cut the ribbon on the lab last weekend.

This is no small development, because the state’s crime labs have been understaffed and behind in finishing their workloads, despite people working to their capacity and doing all they could. But the processing of scientific data requires a lot of training and a lot of time.

There will be 20 new employees in the lab.

Stein was quick to spread thanks for the lab around, including to the Republican-led General Assembly.

Yes, it’s true crime-fighting is a popular cause, and one Republicans are eager to support. But when credit’s due, it’s due, and GOP lawmakers did join Cooper in backing this project. This kind of bipartisanship is what makes, or can make, government work, and members of both parties in the Legislative Building on Jones Street know it.

Here, the need was clear and unquestionable.

Consider that before this lab was established, detectives on a case in mountain communities had to bring their evidence to the lab in Raleigh. (An Asheville office has lacked the size and staff of Raleigh’s, whereas this one is bigger and will process DNA evidence, which other offices did not.) For that detective, a round trip took 10 hours, a huge waste of time that then was unavoidable. But such travel took detectives off of more serious work such as investigating crimes.

Stein pretty much summed it up: “This facility will speed up justice all across the state as more scientists have more time to work cases.”

A year ago, the Attorney General’s Office put the turnaround time, the time needed to test evidence and get results, at an average of seven months-plus. What Stein’s office wants is to cut that to three months.

A priority in this lab is going to be the rape kits used in investigations of those crimes, and that’s good, because those investigations are backed up, and in some cases the evidence is simply lingering, or even thrown away. That is not acceptable and must not be tolerated.

The state also has seen more trouble with opioids, an ever-increasing problem, than most other states, and the lab will help immensely with stemming that epidemic.

There is more to be done. Bipartisan cooperation was achieved here; might citizens hope it could find its way into more areas of state government?

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 9:17 AM with the headline "NC crime lab’s expansion shows government responding well."