STATE CONSIDERING GIVING SOME LAB WORK TO UNIVERSITIES

The state Justice Cabinet is considering handing off some of the testing
work done by state police labs to state universities, including Western
Kentucky University.

Lt. Gov. Steve Pence, who heads the Justice Cabinet, said some of the lab
work is simple and procedural, such as testing seized marijuana. Pence said
the testing could be done by students or university lab workers. "We are
researching opening more labs on the college campuses and using their
facilities," Pence said.

Another potential site is Murray State University, he said. Pence said
using campuses would help streamline the process of testing drugs and would
be cost-effective. It also would allow the state labs' highly trained
workers to focus on more complex cases, he said. Marijuana, for example,
can be identified by police officers who confiscate it, he said, but
certified lab tests are needed for verification so it can be used in a
criminal proceeding.

"It is a very simple test," Pence said. "There's no need to send it to
Frankfort or one of the other labs. It can be done closer to home." Western
President Gary Ransdell said the university would welcome the opportunity
to help fight the backlog of testing waiting to be done in the state's
crime lab and is holding a potential space for this type of work in the
Center for Research and Development in the old Bowling Green Mall. "We are
very interested in assisting the state in a crime-lab which would include
drug testing, DNA analysis, presumably the whole range of forensic
analysis," Ransdell said. "Our students and our faculty are prepared to
provide whatever capacity might be appropriate."

Western has already had preliminary discussions with local judges,
prosecutors and law enforcement agents about the matter and is looking
forward to more formal discussions with the Justice Cabinet, he said. "Law
enforcement workers and prosecutors in this part of the state are really
pushing for a lab in this region," Ransdell said. "If we can help with
that, we'd be glad to."