Police Chief Michael Soelberg last week pressed his case for why Gilbert needs its own crime lab, which would carry an estimated price tag of $53.3 million.
Gilbert Police currently contracts with Mesa Police for its crime lab services. The town consistently ranks as one of the safest municipalities in the country.
“With Mesa, they’ve provided us with good service but we also want to make sure that we have the ability to control our cost, control our destiny, make sure that we have the ability to properly process our evidence in an efficient manner so that we could get successful prosecutions on our cases,” Soelberg said at last week’s council retreat.
“There have been numerous examples, not with Mesa, but with the crime labs that have not processed evidence from crimes whether it be rapes, homicides, either improperly handled it or failing to process that evidence, resulting in additional victims, resulting in suspects being let go, charges being dropped.
“We do not want that situation to happen to us so we want to be able to control our own destiny, be able to have the ability to properly service our citizens within the Town of Gilbert.”
Copies of the consultant’s May 2023 report were handed out to council members at the retreat. A previous council in June 2020 hired McClaren, Wilson & Lawrie, Inc. for $99,311 to assess the need for a lab.
At the time then-Councilwoman Aimee Yentes, who pulled the item off the consent agenda, called the study premature and raised concerns that the company doing the assessment also builds crime labs. Then-Councilman Jared Taylor also voted against it.
Arizona has nine accredited crime labs run by six different agencies, with the Department of Public Service or DPS overseeing four of the labs.
The bulk of Gilbert Police’s cases involving toxicology, controlled substances and DNA evidence are sent to the Mesa Police lab. The contract cost to the town was $706,007 this fiscal year, a 25% increase from 2021-22.
According to the report, Gilbert has no control over the contract cost or case prioritization with Mesa.
Soelberg also voiced concerns that the town could be left “homeless” without a crime lab if the partnership with Mesa ends due to factors such as budget concerns, growth or politics.
Additionally, the turnaround time to processing evidence has gotten longer. For instance, Mesa’s lab in 2019 took 25 days to process Gilbert’s controlled substances, but that increased to 78.8 days in 2021, the report noted.
Mesa also has contracted out its service to Tempe and Queen Creek police departments, leading to a concern of the lab’s long-term capabilities as Mesa continues to add new agencies, the consultant said, adding that “the partnership between Mesa and Gilbert will likely be unsustainable for the long term.”
The report said it was possible in the future for the town to enter into an agreement with Chandler.
Chandler Police currently have a limited lab and secured a voter-approved bond in 2021 to build a $33-million facility but city administration recently pause the project as inflation has pushed its cost to about $48.7 million.
Gilbert also relies on DPS for certain tests such as firearms testing. DPS is the only agency required by statute to provide crime lab services to all 85 state and local jurisdiction law enforcement agencies, with services being provided on a first-come, first-serve basis, according to the report.
The consultant said that the increased demands on DPS labs will “further delay or limit the capacity of other agencies, Gilbert included and that “although it is the only free option, DPS is not a viable option for Gilbert PD.”
Soelberg said that DPS doesn’t have the money or ability to process the volume of evidence it receives in a timely manner.
Noting that criminals can start with property crimes but move on to crimes against people leave DNA evidence in the earlier occurrences.
“So we want to be able to process property crime to get DNA, give us a better chance between that and fingerprints to properly identify a suspect and hopefully get them put away.”
The consultant stated that Gilbert could explore a public-private partnership by sending its evidence to a private lab in Pennsylvania. There are none in Arizona.
But that comes with its own set of problems such as delays with shipping, chain of custody concerns if challenged in court and costs such as shipping a vehicle for processing or paying for the analyst to testify on a case, the consultant said.
“The potential to lose a case due to these issues is deemed not worth the risk,” the report stated.
At the end, the consultant recommended the town build its own lab.
“Outcomes would undoubtedly include improved efficiencies, reduced processing times and equally important allow for the prioritized processing evidence to provide support to the criminal justice system,” the report said, adding that it also would be a good recruiting tool.
If Gilbert proceeds with the project without buy-in from other agencies, the town would need a 21,439-square-foot lab, according to the report. “With all possible regional partners, total size could be as large as 47,323 square feet.”
Soelberg said the other agencies are unwilling to spend millions to help build the lab but were interested in contracting for service.
Soelberg didn’t tell the council how much a lab would costb, only saying that it will be discussed at a workshop Dec. 11.
But the consultant’s report included the potential costs.
The estimated cost to design, build and equip a Gilbert-only lab and ancillary costs was $53.3 million, assuming it would be completed in 2028. Operational costs, including staff, salary and benefits came to $3.3 million.
The consultant gave two potential sites for the lab – vacant land adjacent to the police evidence facility on Williams Field Road and vacant land adjacent to the central station on Civic Center Drive.
“We need to be in a position to where we could be self sufficient,” Soelberg said. “We are a large city with a small-town feel, 282,000 people and growing… We don’t want any crime but we have enough crime to justify having our own crime lab.”
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