Black Hawk County supervisors weigh contribution to joint evidence lab with Waterloo

Black Hawk County supervisors on Wednesday discussed whether to contribute county funds to a proposed joint evidence-processing and storage facility the county would share with the City of Waterloo.

Sheriff Nate Nef of the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office told the board the county’s existing evidence-processing and storage space is unsafe and inefficient and that a new shared building would improve employee safety, chain-of-custody integrity and turnaround time for crime victims. “Our current facility just isn't safe for the employees to work in,” Nef said, summarizing assessments and insurance concerns that have driven the discussion.

The sheriff and his investigators outlined how the county now handles evidence and why local capacity matters. Sergeant Heather Dolan, investigations, said evidence processing needs are unpredictable and cited burglary counts across six recent years to show variability in demand. “Each one of those burglaries has the potential of needing the evidence space,” Dolan said, adding that vehicle processing and major violent-crime scenes especially require a controlled environment and can tie up patrol resources when processing must be done on-scene.

Detective Bill Weiser said…