Sterling Heights

Sterling crime lab spared, fears over future remain

By Cortney Casey
C & G Staff Writer

STERLING HEIGHTS — Two Michigan State Police crime labs slated for closure are receiving a second chance after the Legislature’s 11th-hour move.

On Dec. 12, the House of Representatives reached a bipartisan agreement with Gov. Jennifer Granholm to allocate $2 million to sustain labs in Sterling Heights and Marquette.

Closure of both facilities was imminent after funding was eliminated from the 2008 budget.

The $2 million — reportedly among $130 million the House Appropriations Committee located in “lapsed” funds, appropriated in last year’s budget but not spent — will be included in a supplemental bill receiving House action in January.

Law enforcement officials and some local politicians have spent the last few months lobbying for restored funding, calling the lab essential to the entire region.

Reactions to the reversal of fortune ranged from those who heralded it as a move in the right direction to those who felt it was too little, too late.

“I just felt from my discussion with people in law enforcement that this is a very important facility and it serves a very important purpose in our crime fighting efforts across the state,” said Rep. Steve Bieda, D-Warren. “I think it’s very good news, not only for Sterling Heights but for the state of Michigan as well, that we’re able to keep this very important lab open.”

Sterling Heights Police Chief David Vinson said they are “elated.” Had the Sterling lab closed, police throughout the area would have had to send cases to Northville, he said.

“That lab is a vital part of our law enforcement network and really is key to our ability to solve crimes, bring people to justice and really serve the public in a meaningful way, and keeping our community safe,” he said. “The closing of that lab would be devastating to us. It’s an indispensable service that cannot be duplicated or replicated.”

But Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said he felt the pleas of local police chiefs and sheriffs were falling on deaf ears, as they’ve repeatedly stressed the need to not only sustain the labs, but to expand them.

“Status quo isn’t good enough right now,” he said. “We’re asking them to try to look at ways to add (to) or enhance the facility, because they’re behind six months to a year right now by their own admissions.”

Restoration of previous funding is “nice, but I don’t consider it a gift, because the taxpayers in this region are paying for this service,” he said. “I’m glad they finally woke up and realized how important this is to us … but they need to listen a little carefully, because we’re screaming for more resources in that very area.”

Hackel also expressed suspicions over the timing. The announcement came less than 48 hours before a scheduled press conference at Sterling Heights City Hall, at which Macomb, Oakland and Wayne county sheriff and police representatives planned to discuss concerns over the Sterling lab’s fate.

Yet Hackel received a letter from Granholm only two weeks prior, indicating that the cuts would stand.

The Sterling and Marquette labs are among seven throughout the state. Other facilities are in Grayling, Bridgeport, Grand Rapids, Lansing and Northville.

According to State Police spokeswoman Shanon Akans, firearms evidence, bombs and explosives, latent prints, trace evidence, DNA, blood stain patterns, polygraphs, crime scene evidence, drug and toxicology analyses, and handwriting comparisons all fall under the labs’ purview.

Akans said the labs had been advised to wait until late December to shut down in case legislators found “supplemental money” to keep them solvent.

Because of that, officials had not yet assessed how much of a delay the closures would have caused, but backlogs already exist, she said.

“The case work at the remaining labs certainly would have went up,” she said. “There’s no way that we could just absorb the caseload.”

Rep. Tory Rocca, R-Sterling Heights, said he was pleased with the funding restoration, but remains worried about the facility’s future.

“My concern is that I don’t want us to find ourselves in this situation next year,” he said. “We shouldn’t be relying on found money to keep these funded every year.”

Rocca said he’s pursuing a plan that would reallocate $2.8 million for 36 Department of Corrections prison chaplains to the State Police labs.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Cortney Casey at ccasey@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1046.