Gov. Tim Walz joined other state and local officials in Mankato Monday to break ground on a new regional headquarters and crime lab for the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
The facility will be located near the Blue Earth County Justice Center, and it will serve much of southern Minnesota, improving forensic testing and evidence analysis response times. It will also serve as a regional training hub for the state and local police departments. It’s expected to be operational by early 2027.
“This is all part of making sure we’re able to process those crime scenes, get the evidence necessary, make sure it goes to the courts, and we’re able to make sure that safety is the top priority,” Walz said. “So, [I’m] just incredibly grateful that this entire facility, with the new public safety building, with the investments that Mankato has made, is just really going to make a difference.”
The $67 million crime lab will support law enforcement across southern Minnesota and will employ about 50 forensic scientists and criminal investigators. The new facility will eliminate the need to send critical evidence to the state’s crime lab in the Twin Cities, reducing the chances that evidence is lost, damaged or tampered with.
The Mankato regional facility will be able to process about 6,000 cases a year and about 12,000 pieces of evidence. It will allow police and investigators in southern Minnesota to more quickly test and analyze evidence while relieving the workload for the forensic scientists and technicians in St. Paul’s crime lab.
Drew Evans, superintendent of the BCA, pointed to the tragic double homicide this weekend in the small Brown County town of Hanska, about 30 miles west of Mankato, as a prime example of how investigations will be able to proceed much more quickly.
“Just this weekend, we’re in Brown County, in a terrible situation there,” Evans said. “This [regional headquarters] means [that] the crime scene team comes out of Mankato, not out of the Twin Cities, meaning they’re on scene [in] less time.”
“Having a hub like this with the regional office is going to make [processing evidence] more possible, more quickly,” Evans added. “We’ll improve forensic testing and turn-around times, making our scientists much closer to the courtrooms that they serve each and every day as they testify. This represents a step forward, not just for the BCA but this facility as a regional asset to all of southern Minnesota.”
State Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson said funding for the new crime lab was approved with bipartisan support in the Minnesota Legislature. He said the investments from the state will make communities safer.
You can read the full article at MPR News.