New forensic crime lab opens, could help with DNA testing backlog

AURORA | The suite of crime fighting services available to several local law enforcement agencies mushroomed this week after a new forensic crime lab officially opened near Centennial Airport. 

The Unified Metropolitan Forensic Crime Laboratory officially opened its doors Sept. 27, marking the first local facility that can process DNA samples from regional crimes. The lab was paid for and will serve officers from the Aurora Police Department and the respective sheriff’s offices in Arapahoe and Douglas Counties. Crime evidence from Elbert County may also be analyzed at the lab, due to an agreement with the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

The roughly $13.7 million facility could significantly curtail the time it takes law enforcement officials to analyze DNA samples, and potentially cut down on the significant backlog of evidence waiting to be tested for DNA by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, according to George Brauchler, District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District.

“Now when the sheriff talks about the ability to perhaps seek DNA results on even smaller cases, we’re talking property crimes, burglary, maybe car thefts — things that right now if we submitted those DNA results to our overwhelmed partners at CBI, they would say, ‘we’re going to have to put this further back in the queue as we deal with rapes, robberies (and) murders,’” Brauchler said. “Well, now this jurisdiction doesn’t have to wait on that. We can actually alleviate some of the pressure on CBI.”

Police sometimes have to wait as long as 18 months to receive a DNA analysis from CBI, according to Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock. 

Spurlock said the waiting period for DNA samples will now be “much more manageable” at the new facility. He did not specify by how much the waiting period could be trimmed.

A spokeswoman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Although the facility officially opened Sept. 27 and will be fully staffed in the coming weeks, workers won’t begin testing DNA samples at the site until early next year, according to Steve Johnson, chief deputy with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

Johnson said the delay stems from merging several agencies into one, and waiting for specialized equipment to arrive.

The facility houses extensive chemical, ballistic and DNA testing equipment, including a gun library of more than 150 firearms, according to Carey Alvarez Bacha, firearm and tool mark section technical lead at the lab. Alvarez Bacha said components from the weapons are used to repair damaged guns from evidence so they can be fired and ballistically tested. 

The facility will employ a staff of 31 people, with plans to add about a dozen more staffers in the coming years. The lab’s first employees will all be transferred from the respective forensic units from each agency. 

The 26,500 square-foot building was designed with room to grow, and can be manipulated to add space for different scientific disciplines in the future, Spurlock said. Currently, slightly less than half of the building’s overall square footage will be dedicated to laboratory space, while the remaining portion will be used for administration. 

Douglas County covered the bulk of the upfront costs for the facility, which is located in unincorporated Douglas County on a new street — Double Helix Court — on the west side of Peoria Street between Liberty Boulevard and Aviator Way.

An intergovernmental agreement penned nearly two years ago between the three participating entities stipulates that over the course of 20 years, Douglas County will contribute $23.6 million, Arapahoe County will spend $15.7 million and Aurora will allocate about $30.5 million for the facility. The bulk of the totals for Arapahoe County and Aurora comes from future staffing and facility maintenance, according to the agreement. Douglas County has already accounted for more than half of its total contribution, as the county saddled the entirety of the construction and design costs for the new lab.

Although Aurora is taking on the brunt of the financial payload in the long-term, the city will likely submit a higher number of cases for analysis, according to Spurlock. 

“We understand that, obviously, there will be a lot of work that will be done for the citizens of Aurora, and rightfully so because it’s the number of cases,” he said.

The facility will service a jurisdiction that encompasses roughly one million people, according to Brauchler. Aurora’s population hovers around 360,000 people, according to the city’s census data.

Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said he’s optimistic the new facility will help police solve less-serious crimes, and, in turn, make the city safer.

“What we’re really looking forward to here is being able to submit samples for DNA that are not just going to be for the robberies, or the rapes, or the murders, but also those lower-level crimes,” he said. “In many communities … if those folks are not taken off the streets, they can end up committing more serious crimes in the future. That part is really important to us.”