11.17.09
Columbus Police Crime Lab Gets Federal Grant
By: Matt Alvarez - www.nbc4i.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio—Inside the Columbus Division of Police crime lab, you’ll see state-of-the-art equipment, but not everything is so up-to-date.

Paper-filing systems hold key information about evidence in criminal cases, but the paperwork takes time to fill out, file and pass through the system.

However, a $125,000 federal grant was recently awarded to the city for a forensics upgrade.

The grant will pay for a system to provide a computerized chain of custody tracking system and a means of central data collection.

Forensic scientists at the lab told NBC 4 the new bar-coding system will also eliminate paper copies and free up other scientists to work on pending cases.

According to Columbus city council member Andrew Ginther, this new data collection system will not cost any city tax dollars.

“Our taxpayers pay federal tax dollars. That money goes off to Washington. We ought to get a return on that investment back here in Columbus,“ Ginther said.

Ginther said the bar-coding system will help those investigating be able to keep records of evidence on a computerized system.

“They can look at, scan it and we’ll know exactly who has what, for what purpose and to make sure evidence is properly taken care of,“ Ginther said.

Index of all news articles