Regional forensics lab gets essential expansion at new Indiana State Police post in Evansville
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When the new Indiana State Police post in Evansville opens next year, the regional forensics laboratory will encompass an entire floor, relieving workers from cramped quarters in the existing building and boosting casework productivity often stifled by lack of room.
ISP Superintendent Doug Carter told Inside INdiana Business that the new facility being built next to the current structure on U.S. 41 near Interstate 64 will house post employees on the first level and lab workers on the second. The Evansville project is part of a plan that includes two other new ISP facilities in Fort Wayne and Lowell.
“We’ve already moved into the Fort Wayne lab, of which Evansville is a replica, and we’re almost into the Lowell lab. We’re going to build that same building three times,” Carter said.
The groundbreaking for the 40,000-square-foot structure in Evansville took place in June. Indianapolis-based Pepper Construction was chosen to provide management services for all three ISP projects in a process managed by the Indiana Department of Administration. According to an active contract, the total cost is near $80 million, with an average price tag per facility of about $26 million,
Evansville’s new ISP post is expected to open in October 2024, a moment that can’t come soon enough for lab manager Dan Colbert. He told Inside INdiana Business he’s anticipating the day his team will be able to spread out. “I’m looking forward to everybody having more room, so we’re not right on top of each other,” Colbert said.
‘We’ve outgrown our existing building’
The current post for ISP District 35 was built in 1980. Colbert said the regional forensics laboratory employs about 15 workers, including three DNA analysts, four drug analysts, three firearms examiners and two fingerprint examiners. With only a 4,000-square-foot space to work with, the team outgrew its boundaries years ago.
“We have our main lab area, which is our drug section, and the drug analysts work in there,” said Colbert. “Then we have an area that we’ve basically stolen from the district side over the years since we’ve outgrown our existing building, and we’ve moved over there.
“Firearms has an area over there, plus a shooting tank room in another area,” he said. “Fingerprint has areas on the other side of the building that we’ve had to procure just for spaces. Then DNA is another set of areas.”
The limited space is more than just uncomfortable for the lab workers. The small areas affect the number of cases that analysts and examiners can work on simultaneously.
“DNA, for example, the room they’re working in is small. If one of them has a large case, the other ones can’t be in there working,” Colbert said.
The amount of space “is terrible,” Carter added. “But not for long.”
‘More room to work per analyst’
Evansville’s regional forensics laboratory will share half of the new ISP facility with post employees, giving each entity about 20,000 square feet to perform duties.
“On the post side, new high-tech sophisticated communications systems have been installed. To ensure systems can meet these requirements prior to the building being placed into service, multiple tests are run on systems, and then third-party companies are brought in to certify these systems,” said Jacob Ellis, the project executive with Pepper Construction, told Inside INdiana Business.
After Colbert’s employees move into the new facility, they’ll have more rooms for examinations. “Each analyst will have their own area in the new lab based on the square footage and the size of it and the way the new labs are designed. So they’ll have more room to work per analyst,” said Colbert.
Carter said the new Evansville facility gives ISP the capacity for expansion over the next 20 years. “We could easily add 30% to our workforce, but we’re not going to do that initially,” he said. “The plan was to address the growth the best we could. Even though technology is changing so quickly, for the next 20 years, I think we’ll be able to accomplish that.”
Regarding immediate jobs, Ellis said about 300 people will work onsite throughout the project.
Colbert expects more DNA and drug analysts to be added to his lab staff, which will increase productivity and improve processes. “It should allow for a better workflow for the analysts, my evidence specialists, because right now they’re on the other side of the building taking in evidence and then have to go through our vault. We’ll get more storage facility for the analysts and the evidence,” Colbert said.
“What we’ll be able to do is not only create efficiencies but maintain a level of quality that we won’t be able to maintain if we stay in the facilities that we’re currently in,” Carter added.
With a greater capacity for technology, Carter predicts the new lab will help employees address crime in real time and reduce backlogs. “An investment in technology is going to be necessary in the future,” he said. “We have some robotics now. They allow us to do work when no one’s there. The primary reason is DNA and drugs, being able to run multiple samples at any given time.”
‘See what the future holds’
While ISP District 35 covers six counties—Vanderburgh, Gibson, Knox, Pike, Posey and Warrick—the regional forensics laboratory has a much broader reach. The team works with a minimum of 20 counties in southwestern Indiana. The types of analyses and examinations conducted in the lab, now and years down the road, depend on the dynamics of crime.
“The drug culture is ever-changing, so we’ll see what the future holds,” Carter said. “What’s legal and what’s illegal will dictate to us in the future where our priorities need to go.”
As for the old post, Carter said it will be transformed into a long-term storage facility for the lab. There will also be some administrative spaces available.
“We could move some of our technology people to that area, maybe ICAC [Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program] detectives,” he said “There could be several different folks that would be welcome there in the event they would choose to move.”