Arkansas building new crime lab to ease case backlog

wireready_07-27-2018-16-16-02_03112_crimelab

LOWELL, Ark. (AP) _ Arkansas’ governor says the state is building a new crime
lab in the northwest in an effort to help ease a backlog of cases.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Friday the state will build a $2.6 million,
10,000-square-foot lab that will share space with the Arkansas State Police
Troop L’s new headquarters in Lowell. Hutchinson says he expects the new lab
will open in March 2019.

The facility will be the third site for analyzing evidence in criminal cases.
The state crime lab is located in Little Rock, and the lab has a satellite office
in Hope. Hutchinson says operating the lab will cost $653,000 a year.

Hutchinson says the state crime lab currently has 11,000 cases that are
awaiting processing, more than a third of which come from northwest Arkansas.

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