With the allocation of around $295,000 in grants from the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program to fund two additional positions within the Wilmington Police Department crime lab, elected officials believe the local judicial system will become more efficient.
The lab now serves as the testing hub for 35 agencies within New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties in cases involving Driving While Impaired charges or drug-related charges.
Ben David, N.C. District 5 District Attorney, said adding a chemist and lab technician to the process would make the judicial process smoother and more expedient in cases in which blood tests or substance tests are required.
“They typically take months and months to test and the problem with that, of course, is we can’t try the people until we have the evidence against them,” David said during a Monday, Dec. 15 phone interview. “Very frequently this is the reason why people are languishing in our jails. We are spending $80 a day to wait for lab tests for a year and a half when we would rather know what those results are at month one versus month 17.”
During a presentation to Wilmington City Council Dec. 2, Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous said the lab was a state-mandated service and an effort was made for the establishment of a state regional lab in Wilmington. That request was not granted; however, instead the state began seeking grant funding to supplement the WPD crime lab, Evangelous said.
While faster lab results will mean expedited sentencing, David said the quicker process would also help remove the guilty from the streets.
“I think the overarching point is we are now going to be in a far better position to leave these defendants with no excuse to continue these cases any longer,” he said. “We believe there is gong to be fewer people in jail awaiting trial on drug cases and, from a public safety standpoint, fewer people out of custody who are committing other crimes.”
The grant funds the two additional positions for a year and Evangelous said the goal is to have all 35 agencies contribute to keeping the positions active once the grant sunsets.
With the results he is expecting, David said he does not anticipate there being any resistance to continuing to fund the positions.
“If you look at who is actually sitting in our local jails, more than 80 percent of it is drug related and we need to clear that bed space for the career criminals,” David said. “We think we will be able to demonstrate over this next year why it is so necessary.”
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