$2.5 million allocated for planning of new forensic evidence lab at Sac State Placer Center

The Placer County Board of Supervisors this week allocated $2.5 million to move forward with plans for a forensic evidence lab that could provide a hands-on education for Sacramento State students.

Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said a new crime lab will help speed up the process of analyzing forensic evidence in local cases, such as DNA analysis in sexual assault or murder cases, or blood tests for drugs or alcohol for driving under the influence cases.

The District Attorney’s Office contracts with the California Department of Justice to analyze all forensic evidence in Placer County criminal cases. Prosecutors said that process can range from nine to 12 months before results are returned.

“Currently, forensic testing is beholden to the state’s priorities, timelines and limitations,” Gire said in a news release. “Often times, justice is on hold.”

Waiting up to a year for forensic evidence results can prevent the DA’s Office from filing criminal charges in a timely manner, prosecutors said, and it can delay criminal court cases with numerous postponements. Forensic evidence also is critical in the consideration and review of cold cases or establishing a person’s innocence, as well as exonerating potential suspects during investigations.

The district attorney and Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo spoke at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting about the need for Placer County’s own crime lab, which is planned to provide contract services for other counties in the region.

“The statewide backlog delays investigations and prolongs the criminal justice process,” Woo said in the news release. “This innovative project will be critical to fill this service gap and will be a game changer for the region.”

The Board of Supervisors, with a unanimous 5-0 vote, allocated $2.5 million in design and preconstruction costs forthe Forensic Services Laboratory building.

The county supervisors also approved a common interest agreement with the California State University Board of Trustees to evaluate the proposed lab.

Training for Sacramento State students

Last month, the CSU trustrees approved the master plan for the Sacramento State Placer Center on a 300-acre site near Roseville. The Placer Center is expected to serve up to 1,500 full-time equivalent students during its first seven years, and in its initial phase will include an academic building, library and forensic sciences lab.

The Sacramento State Placer Center will be developed in four phases over 25 years, growing to 12,000 full-time equivalent students with a conference center and performing arts center. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Sacramento State students commute to the main campus from Placer County each year, university officials say.

Discussions are ongoing between county and Sacramento State officials. The plan is to have the county operate the lab and its contracted services, but the building’s ownership, maintenance responsibilities and allocation of space will be determined in a subsequent agreement, according to a county staff report. The building could contain both the lab and Sacramento State classroom and office space.

The District Attorney’s Office anticipates the forensic lab to be about 30,000 square feet and spread across two floors. The prosecutors also plan for the lab to provide forensic students hands-on experience and training opportunities through the Sacramento State criminal justice program.

One of first Sacramento State buildings on the new campus will be the Placer County Forensic Sciences Laboratory, where students can take classes and participate in paid internships, Sacramento State officials announced on Feb. 1. Their goal is to complete construction of the building by 2028. Campus officials said funding for the facility will mainly come from Placer County.

“It would be so great to be in a classroom and say, ‘Let’s walk across the hall to the lab where real work is happening in real time,’” senior associate vice president for the Placer Center, Vajra Watson, said in a Sacramento State news release. “To me, as an educator, having a living lab for experiential learning and internships is the type of partnership that is my dream pedagogy.”