BOND TOUTS CRIME FUNDING

Money matters in the war on crime.

Just ask Dr. Robert Briner, who directs the Southeast Missouri Regional Crime Lab at Southeast Missouri State University.

His agency could receive $800,000 in federal money toward renovation of a building to house an expanded lab.

Just ask the state of Missouri. The state hopes to secure $7 million in federal funds to start a new, computerized juvenile records system.

Another $2 million could be sent to the state to help the Department of Natural Resources clean up methamphetamine lab sites.

The state also hopes to receive $400,000 to train firefighters and other emergency personnel who are called to respond to methamphetamine explosions.

U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond has pushed to get the extra funding for Missouri.

The Senate has approved such spending in two bills. The projects aren't specifically mentioned in the corresponding House bills. Rather, the House bills contain broad funding categories.

Ultimately, the funding decisions will be worked out by two House-Senate conference committees, according to U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's office.

The Senate funding package for the crime lab and the juvenile records system will be dealt with by one joint committee. Money for lab cleanups and firefighter training are in another spending measure and will be dealt with by another joint committee.

In his leadership role in the Senate, Bond is in a key position to help ensure funding for the Missouri projects, Emerson's office said.

If all goes well, the funding should be in place by the Oct. 1 start of the new federal fiscal year, Bond said Monday during a visit to Cape Girardeau.

Bond spoke to about 15 law enforcement officials and supporters while standing in front of a vacant building at the corner of Ellis and Good Hope.

A Cape Girardeau police officer said the site was chosen by Bond's staff because vandals had spray painted graffiti on one side of the small structure.

Bond said the federal funds would give Missouri additional tools to step up the war on drugs and crime.

The veteran senator said the added money for the crime lab would help law enforcement agencies battle the methamphetamine crisis plaguing Missouri.

"We appreciate you taking an interest," Briner told the senator.

The crime lab serves more than 20 counties. The crime lab did forensic work on 3,700 criminal cases last year. That number could exceed 4,000 this year, he said.

Briner said plans call for renovating a 14,000-square-foot university warehouse at Ellis and Merriwether for use as the new crime lab.

The federal funding would go a long way towards paying for the $1.3 million renovation and relocation project, Briner said.

It could allow the project to be expanded to include other services such as a regional morgue and law enforcement training, he said.

The $7 million proposed for the new juvenile records program would amount to the first phase of funding.

Bond has pledged to seek $21 million in funding for a six-year program to track juvenile offenders by computer. Missouri's 45 judicial circuits and their juvenile officers would be served by a computer network.

The system would allow officers to keep complete and accurate criminal records on juveniles. The information could be shared with law enforcement and school officials, Bond said.

"Too often juvenile laws have shielded violent juveniles," Bond said.

The computerized records system would help correct that situation, he said. The records also could help authorities aid juveniles who have been victims of abuse, Bond said.

The senator said the records system would be the first of its kind in the nation.