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District attorney seeks committee OK to pursue feasibility study for forensic lab with SUNY Fredonia
Summary
District Attorney Jason Schmidt asked the committee to support issuing an RFP for a feasibility study on establishing a forensic laboratory in partnership with SUNY Fredonia; Schmidt said local lab capability could speed evidence turnaround and help meet criminal-procedure deadlines.
Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt asked the Public Safety Committee to support a next step toward a feasibility study for creating a local forensic laboratory in partnership with SUNY Fredonia.
Schmidt said the county currently relies on state and regional crime labs with turnaround times that have ranged from about six months historically to roughly three months more recently for DNA and other analyses. "It would be nice if we could process our...evidence here locally," Schmidt said, adding that long turnaround times can undermine prosecutions because defendants in serious cases can be subject to statutory deadlines for indictment and arraignment.
Schmidt described outreach to SUNY Fredonia, which has expressed interest in hosting a lab either on its main campus or at the Dunkirk incubator building; the college's science faculty have toured an Erie County lab and identified compatible equipment. He said the college is not currently positioned to fully fund a feasibility study, and estimated a study could cost on the order of $150,000'$200,000. Schmidt suggested some of the county's discovery- and bail-reform grant funding might be an available funding source for the RFP and feasibility work and said he had spoken informally with the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).
Committee members signaled support for issuing the RFP and for the committee to receive an update at the next meeting. "I think the consensus here of the Public Safety Committee...is to take the next step and go ahead and proceed," the chair said. Schmidt said the college has asked to avoid public announcements while the process unfolds and that the county would not issue public releases without legislative sign-off.
If advanced, the feasibility study would examine possible campus and off-campus locations, required security and accreditation requirements under DCJS, cost estimates, and operational arrangements between the college and law-enforcement partners. Schmidt said no county funds were being spent at the time of the committee discussion and that purchasing had received the draft RFP for review.
