Reprinted from Gongwer News Service:

Buffeted by the pressures of the recent closure of the city of Detroit crime lab and budget cuts that would take away a state crime lab in Marquette, prosecutors, police and local officials said Tuesday the state faces a catastrophic situation in which will lead to criminal cases being dismissed and longer delays in analyzing evidence.

Those testifying before the House Appropriations State Police and Military Affairs Subcommittee suggested a close look at using federal stimulus funds to support crime lab operations and that other areas should be examined for cuts first - such as costs at the new State Police headquarters - before lab operations suffer.

The Detroit lab, the state's busiest, is to be replaced, likely with a State Police crime lab in the city, but plans are not yet complete and training of new technicians takes about two years. The lab was closed after disclosures of errors in analyzing firearms evidence has reopened thousands of cases in which persons may have been wrongly convicted.

Defenders of the Marquette lab, which Governor Jennifer Granholm proposed be shut down as part of the cuts in the State Police budget, said that move would have statewide implications but more importantly would impose significant burdens on the 73 law enforcement agencies across the Upper Peninsula who would have to spend long hours traveling to the next closest facility in Grayling.

Some also questioned whether the costs for the additional travel and meals by the police, as well as by crime lab staff, would outweigh the $900,000 in savings by closing the Marquette lab which is losing its home following the sale of the building by the city.

Marquette County Sheriff Michael Lovelace said the closure means some UP police officers would have to travel as long as nine hours to get services that are available in downstate areas within two hours.

"There will be delays," Mr. Lovelace said of the closure of the Marquette lab. "I see so many tremendous operational issues and problems. It will be devastating to the entire criminal justice system."

Abraham Azzam, director of the Michigan High Intensity Drug Trafficking Program, said it is incumbent on the state to provide first-class forensic services to the public. "There will be numerous retrials and mistakes," he said of the consequences of losing the lab.

Michael Thomas, head of the State Police Forensics Division, said the expectations that accompany the work of crime labs have only grown as they register successes in solving crimes by better analysis of evidence. "We have a public safety crisis in the State of Michigan with our forensic services," he said.

Even before the talk of closure of the Marquette lab and Detroit's lab, Mr. Thomas said the state was falling short of meeting a standard of analyzing evidence within 30 days, especially in the area of DNA evidence. "We have some cases with a backlog that exceeds a year," he said. "In Detroit, we have homicide backlogs that date to July, 2008."

Mr. Thomas said the seven State Police crime labs will be handling some 20,000-30,000 cases this year generated within Detroit. He said the agency is "working aggressively" to come up with a solution to how to proceed if the Marquette lab is closed, but noted many services are already centralized in a limited number of locations.

"It's the perfect storm that has hit us," he said. "It is catastrophic and we don't have the resources." He said the State Police is targeting the addition of 40 forensic scientists to handle the additional workload. It is also preparing a $7.4 million capital outlay request to expand the Lansing lab.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who supported those calling for the continued operation of the Marquette lab, said the serious problems that already existed prior to the closing of the Detroit lab will only get worse. A chief barrier is the 91-day track judges are demanding to complete work so a criminal case can go to trial, she said.

"Judges will dismiss cases, whether they be murder or carjacking, because they can't be started in that 91-day track," she said. "We need more examiners, not less; we need more crime labs, not less. When the economy goes bad crime goes up and I don't understand why police and prosecutors have to grovel and beg for forensic services."

She and Detroit Deputy Mayor Saul Green agreed a facility should be re-established in Detroit and not operated by the city, but clashed regarding past problems between the prosecutor's office and the lab and how the city will help fund the new lab's operations.

Mr. Thomas said the State Police support opening a lab in the city, but does not yet have money in the budget to do it.

Good alternatives do exist for a new home for the Marquette lab, said Amy Clickner of the Marquette County Economic Development Corporation, including one at Northern Michigan University. Given the wide geographic coverage provided by the lab to police in the UP, she said closure would mean that "swift crime investigation would come to an end. Relying on the crime lab in Grayling is problematic, especially in winter months. The real tragedy would be on crime victims and their families."

Terry Fitzpatrick, real estate director for the Department of Management and Budget, said the month-to-month agreement allowing the lab to stay in its current building is unlikely to last beyond July. She said one NMU site was the most viable, though it came with a $3.4 million renovation cost and would be occupied with a lease rather than state ownership.

Rep. Steven Lindberg (D-Marquette) warned that a 30-hour delay that occurred before analysts could arrive at a double homicide scene in the UP "would be fairly typical" if the Marquette lab is closed. The loss of the bomb squad at the facility would mean public safety would be "greatly compromised."

Cynthia Paul of the Service Employees International Union urged the subcommittee to find an alternative to closure of the Marquette lab because of the costs involved by the forensic scientists in Grayling as they deal with a much wider geographic territory and by the small police agencies.

One source of funds to keep the lab going, she said, is the $168 million in the federal stimulus package for law enforcement, or the $1.6 billion in discretionary federal funds.

Rep. Richard LeBlanc (D-Westland), the subcommittee chair, acknowledged the deep problems facing the labs, saying, "Much discussion needs to occur on this.