This section's primary responsibility is the chemical analysis of evidence, such as drugs, poisons, blood alcohols and blood drugs that are obtained during criminal investigations.
Section chemists are also involved in the investigations of clandestine laboratories (illegal drug labs) and assist in all phases of a clandestine laboratory investigation, including the crime scene search of the laboratory. Section chemists utilize state of the art instrumentation systems in their analysis of evidence. These chemists also testify in state and federal courts as expert witnesses defending their analysis of evidence that is subsequently presented in court in a criminal prosecution.
Cocaine accounts for the majority of the drug cases analyzed, followed by marijuana, heroin, and LSD. The Drug Section is constantly encountering new and unusual drugs.
Evidence Control
This section receives, tracks, and returns evidence submitted to the Crime Laboratory by law enforcement agencies from all one hundred counties across the state. Data of the evidence submitted to the laboratory is entered into the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to initiate the tracking of evidence and to generate the beginning of lab reports. The evidence is transferred to the technicians to maintain control and custody. Items of evidence are tracked by LIMS throughout the laboratory as analyses are completed and returned to the technicians for external transfer to the respective law enforcement agencies. Technicians routinely testify to the chain of custody in criminal proceedings.
The Administrative Services Unit has the responsibility for laboratory report dissemination and case file preparation, tracking, maintenance and archiving. Approximately 35,000 submissions were received during the past year with an expected increase to 40,000 submissions predicted for this calendar year.
page 2page 3
