Panel Urges Building of Regional Crime Lab : Justice: Facility to process criminal evidence for law enforcement agencies in county would cost $22 million to $27 million to construct.

San Diego County’s local governments should pool their resources to build a regional crime lab for analyzing evidence, members of a select committee announced Wednesday.

The lab, which could provide service to all of the law enforcement agencies within the county, would cost $22 million to $27 million, according to Dist. Atty. Ed Miller and San Diego City Councilman Ron Roberts, both members of the committee.

A jointly operated crime lab could process tests from evidence faster and more cost-effectively than the labs now operated by the San Diego Police Department and the county Sheriff’s Department, Roberts said.

“We have criminals, up to and including murderers, who are remaining on the streets because of the time lag at crime labs,” Roberts said. “We’ve got to change that.”

The regional lab proposal is subject to the approval of the county and each of the cities. That means that the lab probably wouldn’t be built before 1993, Roberts said.

As a first step toward building the jointly operated lab, the committee recommended that the county and cities share the costs of acquiring three pieces of high-tech equipment.

That equipment, estimated to cost $880,000 annually to operate and maintain, would allow law enforcement officers to analyze “genetic fingerprints,” gunshot residue and minute fragments of fabric taken from crime scenes, Miller said.

The committee, which included representatives from the San Diego Police Department and the sheriff’s office, made its recommendation after having studied the issue since March.

The regional lab should be housed in a 100,000- to 125,000-square-foot building and include the latest high-tech analytic equipment, Miller said.

Because the public has become more knowledgeable about sophisticated evidence-gathering methods, it is especially important for law enforcement agencies to keep their facilities up-to-date, Miller said.

When jury members know that it’s possible to gather DNA--”genetic fingerprints”--from a crime scene, they become suspicious when such evidence isn’t presented at a trial, Miller said.

Government officials have kicked around the idea of building a regional crime lab for almost 20 years.

Miller said he has advocated a regional lab since 1971, but the idea never became reality because of a “vigorous turf battle” between the city and county.

The rising cost of lab equipment has changed that, Roberts said.

“Rivalries you can only afford up to a point,” Roberts said. “I think that we’ve reached that point.”

Under the committee’s plan, the city of San Diego would pay about 52% of the lab’s building cost, the county would pay about 22% and each of the smaller cities that now use the sheriff’s lab would pay a share based on their populations and crime rates.

The $6-million annual operating cost of the lab would be similarly divided, Miller said.