The lab processes drug, firearms and DNA evidence vital to criminal cases. It's struggling under a massive backlog. A state-of-the-art new office might help.
The Bexar County crime laboratory, struggling to chisel away at a massive backlog of cases, will have a new home a year from now — a freshly renovated South Side building with more than twice as much space as the lab now has. For prosecutors, defense lawyers and those who work in the Criminal Investigation Laboratory , it can't happen soon enough. The remodeled 39,000-square-foot building will give employees room to breathe as they conduct DNA, drug and firearms analysis.
Bexar County crime is lab is running more than a year behind There's a backlog of roughly 5,000 cases awaiting analysis. Evidence vital to criminal investigations can sit idle for as long as a year. Some samples submitted in 2023 won't be processed until this month, officials said. The Bexar County Commissioners have approved increased overtime to ease the glut. The lab's spacious new home-in-the-making is another piece of the solution.
Backlog at Bexar County District Attorney's Office grows as thousands wait for their day in court Dym said the backlong stems in part from the Texas Legislature’s decision in 2019 to legalize products that contain less than 0.3% of THC, the active ingredient responsible for a marijuana high. Distinguishing legal from illegal cannibis products requires sophisticated analysis, which takes three times as long as other drug testing.
Bexar County crime lab running more than year behind If future legislative changes further increase the lab's workload, the new building will give Dym room to add employees, something that's difficult to do now because of space limitations. The larger building also will be able to accommodate new equipment, such as a device to help firearms analysts match bullet casings to specific guns more quickly, Dym said.
Criminal Investigation Laboratory University Of Texas Health Science Center Baptist University Of The Americas Bexar County Medical Examiner South San Antonio High School Baptist University Texas Legislature Orin Dym Dan Curry Daniel De La Garza Das Bexar County South Side ME Barlite Blvd. Houston RELATED
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