CSI Comes To Life! Eight New Forensic Lab Facilities Planned Across the U.S.

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- It is a pretty safe bet that various law enforcement agencies across the country agree that the reality of most forensic or crime labs are a far cry from those portrayed on television. Tight budgets and spiraling construction costs prevent the vast majority from having a stunning array of the latest state-of-the-art equipment on hand ready to detect the who, what, when and where of questionable deaths. Yet, there does come a point where replacement of antiquated facilities is simply unavoidable, which has led to plans for eight new forensic laboratories across the country.

The eight current lab projects represent a total investment value (TIV) of $220 million, with an average TIV of $27.5 million (reference: Industrial Info Resource’s Pharmaceutical Tracker). While the majority of them are sourced by state entities, one is private and the other is a civic effort. The projects are considered essential, in order to offer the staffing and latest technology necessary to help law enforcement agencies investigate and solve crimes, whose growth, unfortunately, has kept rapid pace with the explosion of today’s technology.

The state of Texas is the resounding leader in construction plans for updated crime labs. Five projects are in various stages of planning, with the cities of Austin, El Paso, Garland, Lubbock and McAllen all up for completely new facilities. The largest of the Texas projects is the $40 million Austin lab, with the state’s planned total investment for all of the buildings reaching $105 million.

Click on the image at right for a project list of the active crime lab projects.

The State of Maryland is deep in the planning process for its $54 million Forensic Medical Center. Designed by Gaudreau (Baltimore, Maryland), the six-story, 100,000 square-foot building will house the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) of Maryland. The lab will include a Main Autopsy Area, Special Procedures Autopsy Area (Contaminated Handling) and Biosafety Level-3 Laboratory Area. Gilbane (Laurel, Maryland) will serve as the project’s Construction Manager@Risk, which is scheduled to get underway in mid-2008.

Human Identification Technologies (Redlands, California) wants to build a $25 million forensic DNA testing lab that will offer its services to multiple law agencies. The 50,000 square foot facility would feature Short Tandem Repeat (STR) testing based on Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Finally, in a case of life desperately wanting to imitate television, the only grassroot effort by a civic group formed specifically to build a new forensic center, is located in Henderson, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas. The Friends of Henderson CSI unhappy with the lack of proper facilities, want to build a $38 million lab.

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