Minnesota public-safety agencies ask lawmakers for roughly $169 million for new BCA labs and consolidated State Patrol headquarters

The Department of Public Safety asked the Capital Investment Committee on Feb. 11 for funding to build a new Southern Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) regional office and laboratory in Mankato, expand the Bemidji regional lab, and build a consolidated Minnesota State Patrol headquarters. The combined requests presented at Tuesday's hearing total about $169.3 million: $68.1 million for the Mankato BCA facility (an increase of about $20 million from an earlier $48 million request), roughly $4.2 million for Bemidji land acquisition and related work, and $97 million for State Patrol construction (with prior design funding of $22.5 million already provided).

The projects aim to reduce evidence turnaround times, add regional training capacity, create secure evidence-storage locations, and consolidate six State Patrol metro sites under a single modern headquarters. “Building a new lab at Mankato will help evidence turnaround throughout Minnesota,” Commissioner Bob Jacobson said as he introduced the agency’s capital proposals.

Why it matters: BCA officials told the committee laboratory demand has risen sharply over the last decade, driven by required sexual-assault kit testing, a large increase in digital evidence work, more drug evidence (including methamphetamine and opioids), and a surge in internet-crime reports.…