Proposed tax would fund regional crime lab for Greene County, Mo.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Greene County residents will be asked in November to approve a tax increase that would provide funds to support a regional crime laboratory based in Springfield.

Supporters of the tax say the state's current crime labs are overwhelmed with evidence, causing long delays in trying criminal cases. The quarter-cent sales tax, which will be on county ballots Nov. 8, would generate an estimated $10 million. About $600,000 would be earmarked for the regional crime lab.

The main crime lab in Jefferson City, run by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, tests everything from DNA to ballistics for agencies across the state. The lab processes evidence from as many as 10,000 cases a year, meaning results are often not available for months -- causing police to wait to make arrests and making prosecutors unable to file charges.

Springfield officials have said the city will house the lab for free in a downtown building. Local officials hope to obtain federal funds to help equip the lab and the Highway Patrol would staff it.

Southwest Missouri law enforcement officials say a regional lab is one of their top priorities.

"I think that old adage about 'justice delayed is justice denied' is nowhere more true than in investigations," said Maj. Steve Ijames, commander of the Springfield Police Department's criminal investigations division.

Lab testing is a vital part of solving many violent crimes such as murder and rape, he said, and it is necessary in every drug case. With the average wait for drug samples at nine months, drug suspects often remain on the street for months.

"These guys disappear, they leave town," Ijames said. "We just can't get cases resolved quickly, and victims get victimized a second time."

The delays also hinder prosecutors' ability to try cases successfully and quickly, said Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Cynthia Rushefski, who handles many of the county's major crimes.

"Without question, the lack of adequate lab facilities is one of the single biggest problems in getting cases cleared in an expeditious way," she said. "How do you explain to a victim's family that this case is going to hang on for two or three years because of a delay in lab testing? ... How do you keep a witness on point for three years?"

Private labs may be used in serious cases, but Rushefski said such labs don't guarantee a quick response and often cost too much.

She and Ijames said their criticisms are about the delays, not the quality of work done at the state lab.

"They do a real good job for us," Ijames said. "That's why there's a big backlog."

That's not likely to change without more staff and facilities, said Bill Marbaker, assistant director of the patrol's crime lab division.

"I think we've reached the point where we really need to expand the services at that local level as much as possible," Marbaker said. "We're getting in, of all types of cases, around 9,000 to 10,000 cases [a year] at the headquarters lab, only."

A current patrol satellite lab at Missouri State University is equipped only for drug analysis.

"It's absolutely overwhelmed with work," Marbaker said of the lab, which handles about 3,600 such cases a year. "They've got probably the biggest backlog of cases of any of our offices in the state."

Defense attorney Dee Wampler said he also supports a regional lab.

"It would be easy for me to say, 'Vote against it and I'll get a lot more cases thrown out,' but that's not the way I look at it," said Wampler, who was Greene County Prosecuting Attorney from 1970 to 1972. "Keep in mind, it clears my clients as well ... and they're entitled to a speedy trial -- that's the Sixth Amendment -- and they're not getting a speedy trial."