PUBLICATION:          The Edmonton Sun

DATE:                         2005.02.25

EDITION:                    Final

SECTION:                  News

PAGE:                         4

BYLINE:                     DOUG BEAZLEY, EDMONTON SUN 

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CSI SHUTDOWN

RCMP PLANS TO CLOSE FORENSICS LAB IN EDMONTON

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News that the RCMP is shutting down its Edmonton forensic science lab is ringing alarm bells in police services in and around the city.

The Edmonton Police Service wants to know how the closure might affect the speed with which RCMP scientists can return forensic reports on crime exhibits.

"We're not sure at this point if it means status quo or things getting worse," said Insp. Brad Ward of the EPS Crimes Against Persons section.  "One thing that concerns us is a lack of direct local access to (forensic) specialists."

"You'd think they could have picked something else to cut," said Const. Bob Grant of the Camrose Police Service. "We depend on that service to do our jobs."

A letter sent yesterday to RCMP Forensic Lab Services staff from Assistant Commissioner J.L. (Joe) Buckle, obtained by the Sun, confirms the lease on Edmonton 's FLS building will be allowed to expire this year.

It's part of the RCMP's effort to cut its own costs to help pay for the long list of new spending announced in Wednesday's federal budget. The closure is expected to cost taxpayers $3.3 million in 2005, but save $1.2 million per year indefinitely.

"The closure of the Edmonton laboratory site presented the most viable financial option," Buckle wrote.

RCMP Cpl. Monique Beauchamp said lab staff at Edmonton will be offered transfers to one of the RCMP's five other labs around the country.

She said that while forensic samples that would have been sent to Edmonton may take longer during the one-year transition period, the RCMP believes it will be "business as usual by the end of that year."

One retired RCMP forensics expert says police officers should expect forensic services to get worse, not better. Dave Hepworth, former deputy director of the Regina lab, said the Edmonton closure is part of a trend in the RCMP towards slashing lab services.  "They closed down the evidence recovery units in Edmonton and Regina in 2003 and centralized them in Ottawa ," he said. "So police services in those regions lost that local expertise.

"The backlog of DNA tests gets longer every year, because they won't invest the resources into getting it done. The trend is toward centralizing everything in Vancouver and Ottawa - we're going to be in huge trouble if we have to deal with a huge disaster like a terrorist attack."

Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz has been pressuring the RCMP over its backlog of DNA tests, which he said grew from 752 to 1,217 over 2004. He said the federal government is starving police forensic services and putting investigations at risk.  "Meanwhile, they've got a billion-dollar-plus gun registry that doesn't work and they haven't cut its funding by one nickel," he said.

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NOTE: Letter to FLS Employees from J.L. (Joe) Buckle, Assistant Commissioner, Forensic Laboratory Services attached.

http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/FLSEdmonton.pdf