CRIME LAB

In Our View

The regional crime laboratory at Missouri Southern State College has
enhanced the capabilities of area criminal-justice agencies that rely on
analysis of crime-scene evidence for making many of their cases in court.
Lab personnel have also helped investigators in processing evidence at the
scenes of major crimes, a forensic plus that can help narrow investigative
avenues for authorities.

During the life of the regional lab, Southwest Missouri has evolved into an
entrepreneurial center for meth makers who apparently find the seclusion of
rural areas and the availability of basements, garages and motel rooms in
the more populated locales to their liking and profit. The proliferation of
the meth labs and of drug raids over the years has been dramatic, and has
focused much of the lab's resources on the war against drugs.

"The increased analytical demands have drastically increased the turnaround
time for processing cases and have increased our backlog," wrote Philip
Whittle, director of the crime lab, in a recent report. "Our current staff
is sometimes unable to provide the courts with the required analytical
results within the desired time frame; cases are often postponed until the
laboratory reports are available. The crime laboratory is therefore the
'bottle neck' in the timely adjudication of criminal cases."

The Missouri Southern lab, which serves 40 agencies in nine counties in
Southwest Missouri and five agencies in Kansas, has a normal turnaround
time of 42 days in providing test results in a typical meth case. That is
short of the 30-day goal envisioned by Whittle, but is impressive against
the reality of the 60- to 90-day periods taken by most state labs.

Meth and other drugs are only part of the broad spectrum of cases involving
forensic investigation and analysis at the regional crime lab. Criminalists
can analyze latent fingerprints, blood and other body fluids, hairs, and
fibers.

The making of meth doesn't require a degree in chemical engineering, only a
formula, basic ingredients, an isolated area for a lab, greed, and a
disregard for the law and for the welfare of others. Over the years, the
regional lab has been an extraordinary and valuable resource for area law
enforcement agencies and a dependable ally of the criminal justice system,
and too often an underappreciated cog in public safety.