RICHFIELD, Ohio – Attorney General Betty D. Montgomery has dedicated a new state-of-the-art crime lab to serve northeast Ohio.
The facility will bring the most advanced forensic technology, computer crime investigative assistance, and law enforcement training closer to area police departments and sheriff’s offices.
The 54,000-square-foot, $6.7 million Northeast Forensic Laboratory and Training Center replaces the 9,800-square-foot office that housed the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation’s Richfield operation.
The new facility – which serves 27 counties in Ohio – also includes Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation’s northern Ohio Computer Crimes Unit and the Peace Officer Training Academy North division.
What work will be done? Forensic specialists and special agents in the computer crimes unit assigned to the facility will be able to assist local law enforcement in cracking computer-related crimes.
Peace Officer Training Academy will offer the latest in computer forensic courses and other coursework through its two classrooms and 125-seat auditorium with video and distance-learning capabilities.
The facility also offers a wide range of assistance to local law enforcement through its narcotics, crime scene, special investigations, polygraph, environmental enforcement, and financial crimes units.
A larger laboratory will offer DNA, latent fingerprint, trace evidence, drug, and firearms analysis.
In addition to the Richfield office, BCI has a regional criminal investigation office in Boardman and two other DNA labs in London and Bowling Green.
