COUNCIL VOTES TO SEEK BIDS ON DRUG TESTING EQUIPMENT

Moving the Columbus Police Department one step closer to a having a fully
functional crime lab, the City Council Tuesday night unanimously voted to
take bids on $24,000 of drug testing equipment.

Initially, the equipment will enable the city to have its own lab for
testing city employees.

But as the capabilities are increased, the equipment likely will generate
some income for the city.

Columbus Police Chief Joseph St. John told the council the city's previous
practice of "sending away" for drug testing only prolonged the process.

"It's real cutting edge (technology)," he said of the equipment, which
will be leased, with an option to purchase.

"One of the things we're looking for is to be able to do our own
urinalysis testing (and) our own drug testing," St. John added this
morning. "And once we're up and running, we can use this for other agencies."

"There are several benefits. Basically, the instrumentation - Gas
Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer - carries several functions," explained
Austin Shepherd, the CPD's director of forensics. "One of the most
basic is drug screenings on blood and urine.

"Right now, the city spends somewhere around $7,000 a year on drug testing
and screening. That may not seem like much, but when you add in the fact -
through our up and coming drug court, which starts in January -
the district attorney's office (and others) will generate about a thousand
samples to be analyzed a year, it becomes a bigger thing we're looking at."

Currently, the city pays between $40 and $50 per sample for drug testing.

With the new equipment, the city likely will perform drug testing and
screening for other agencies for about $30, a "competitive price" that
will "help generate profits," Shepherd said, noting the city has a
"really good chance to get a good deal" on the equipment.

And the equipment eventually will be used for other lab processes, which
are not currently offered anywhere in Mississippi beyond the state crime lab.

"This instrumentation is used in several different analysis in a crime
lab," Shepherd said. "We're hoping to generate about $30,000 in gross
income. This instrumentation can also be used to analyze
unknown substances, most specifically controlled substances. That is our
ultimate goal. It can also be used to perform trace analysis.

"That is something we're going to build to," he continued. "We'll start by
generating a small, but healthy profit to show the city we can do this; it
can be done by a municipality our size.

"As far as forensics go, we're actually doing very well. We offer latent
fingerprint analysis, computer analysis and video analysis. We're already
offering some stuff that no other agency, outside the state crime lab,
offers. We're already doing good, but we're on the verge of doing great.

"We're on the verge of doing something no other agency can offer. Our goal
is to have a fully functional crime lab that will serve other agencies."