New Mexico builds $29M forensic laboratory to aid police investigations

SANTA FE — New Mexico is opening a new forensic laboratory designed to help law enforcement officers and prosecutors more quickly analyze evidence and solve crimes.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen and other public safety officials gathered Tuesday to celebrate completion of the new $29 million lab.

It’s about four times the size of the old one and well-equipped, officials said, to analyze DNA, firearms and bullet casings, fingerprints, and illegal drugs.

State officials said they also expect the 44,000-square-foot building to aid in the recruitment of new scientists to expand the lab’s workforce.

In a news conference, Lujan Grisham described the laboratory as an example of New Mexico’s increased spending on public safety initiatives. Analysis conducted at the lab, she said, will help police more quickly analyze evidence and allow prosecutors to build stronger cases.

“It’s meaningful work,” she said. “It’s powerful work.”

New Mexico had the nation’s second-highest violent crime rate in 2020, but incomplete data has made it difficult to compare in recent years.

Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, broke its record for homicides each of the last two years.

Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who won reelection last year, expressed optimism Tuesday that homicides will fall in the state this year.

In the meantime, she said, she will ask lawmakers in next year’s 30-day session to continue spending on public safety equipment and similar capital projects. She also intends to pursue new legislation stiffening penalties for individuals who steal from big box and other retail stores.

The governor has previously said she expects to propose new firearms restrictions next year, too, such as raising the age to purchase certain guns, imposing a waiting period on gun sales and banning AR-15-style rifles.

Katharina Babcock, director of the state’s forensic laboratory, said it’s been difficult to recruit scientists and expand the lab’s workforce while working in a cramped, outdated facility that wasn’t originally designed to serve as a lab.

The new building, she said, will allow forensic scientists to work more quickly and provide much more space.

“It’s going to be exceptional, not only for the staff, but for the community as well,” Babcock said.

Work at the lab includes analyzing blood, saliva and bodily fluids for DNA evidence; linking bullets and casings to a particular firearm; identifying fingerprints; and testing controlled substances.

There’s also a shooting range that can help scientists carry out tests.

The laboratory analysis can shape public safety investigations in a number of ways, Babcock said. It could, for example, exonerate someone falsely accused, she said, or confirm eyewitness accounts.

Scientists in white lab coats greeted visitors Tuesday as the governor and others toured the two-story building in central Santa Fe.