Board of Supervisors approve $166,600 for crime lab improvements

Posted: 6:38 am, November 23, 2015 by Reporter Heather Young

Two forensic specialists examine evidence in San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s crime lab.

–Many are familiar with the crime labs they see on shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS, and their spin-offs. Though it’s sometimes difficult to determine what is true to form and what is Hollywood’s interpretation, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said the county’s crime scene investigation unit is “kind of your typical CSI group.”

Earlier this month, the SLO County Board of Supervisors approved a transfer of $166,600 from the CAL ID trust fund to enhance the crime lab’s capabilities to process and compare fingerprints, replace technology systems and provide patrol personnel camera capability of capturing comparison photographs of fingerprint images.

Items purchased by CAL ID funds:

Foray ACE-V latent case management system, $65,000
Reflective ultra violet imaging system to replace one purchased in 2009, $44,000
Live scan unit for the county’s probation department for the adult probation division, $22,000
Twenty-eight Olympus Tough cameras, $15,000
Three Wacom tablet devices for fingerprint examiners, $7,500
Epson large format photo printer for large-sized court exhibits of fingerprint comparison evidence, $5,000
Kyocera multipurpose copier/fax/scanner to replace one purchased in 2006, $4,300
FBI-approved fingerprint car printer to replace one installed in 2007, $2,000
Back-up computer system for the live scan in the Sheriff’s office’s main jail, $1,800

This photo shows two analytical components of the Gas Chromatographer Mass Spectrometer. The Gas Chromatographer separates chemicals based on factors such as boiling points and polarity. The separated substances then flow into the Mass Spectrometer component and a chemical mass is registered combining the two technologies together has become the "Gold Standard" for Forensic Analytical Analysis of drugs, San Luis Obispo County Public Information Officer Tony Cipolla said.

This photo shows two analytical components of the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer. The Gas Chromatograph separates chemicals based on factors such as boiling points and polarity. The separated substances then flow into the Mass Spectrometer component and a chemical mass is registered combining the two technologies together has become the “Gold Standard” for Forensic Analytical Analysis of drugs, San Luis Obispo County Public Information Officer Tony Cipolla said.

Parkinson said that the CAL ID program is basically everything related to fingerprinting applications. The funds in the CAL ID trust fund come from vehicle tax. He added that none of the funding comes from the general fund. The expenses were approved by CAL ID board in July. The board is made up of Parkinson, District Attorney Dan Dow, SLO City Mayor Jan Marx, SLO Interim Police Chief Chris Staley, Atascadero Police Chief Jerel Haley, District 1 Supervisor Frank Mecham and member-at-large Jenifer Rhynes.

“These service enhancements would contribute to the county’s vision of a safe community,” Parkinson said. The county’s vision is “to create a community where all people – adults and children alike – have a sense of security and well-being, crime is controlled, fire and rescue response is timely and roads are safe.”

The county has four sections of its crime lab: Forensic blood-alcohol lab with one full-time employee, chemistry and toxicology lab with one full-time employee and one half-time assistant, crime scene investigators with two full-time employees and one CAL ID coordinator to over see the fingerprint program. The county also has a computer forensics person who is not part of the crime lab, but which works alongside crime scene investigators as needed. The Sheriff’s crime lab processes evidence and, in some cases collects evidences, for all agencies in the county as the only crime lab.

“[The crime lab is] very busy. We do analysis for blood-alcohol tests for all the agencies in the county,” Parkinson said. “They constantly have a back log of things to process.” He added that while some agencies have crime scene investigators, most of the processing of evidence goes through the county’s crime lab.

What the crime lab cannot process are DNA tests. Those are sent to the California Department of Justice. Parkinson said that if there is an identified suspect, results could come back quickly, but if there is no suspect to compare the sample to, it could take six months to a year.

“I would love to have a DNA lab, but it’s a costly lab and a costly position,” Parkinson said. He said the ballpark cost of a DNA lab would be several hundred thousand dollars for the equipment and $150,000 to $200,000 annually for a technician.