Officials want a Memphis crime lab to expedite DNA, ballistics testing. Big questions remain

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy for months now has ramped up efforts to land Memphis and Shelby County a crime lab of its own.

The concept has drawn wide support and was previously brought up in earnest during the immediate fallout of Eliza Fletcher's abduction and killing, but the conversation about the crime lab quickly died down. Now, Mulroy has begun advocating more openly for a crime lab, even as exact details remain scant.

A bill with bipartisan support in the Tennessee General Assembly would launch a feasibility study into a crime lab in Memphis, and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners Monday passed a resolution voicing support for the study.

During a Wednesday morning press conference, Mulroy reiterated his hopes for that local crime lab.

"Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris has already written a letter of support [for the feasibility study]," Mulroy said. "I think others are going to do so as well. I'll say today that I support that, also, but I believe the state should not only fund a feasibility study but it should, in fact, give us the funding that we need to start up a local crime lab here in Memphis and Shelby County, like the one that they have in Metro Nashville."

The cost of building a crime lab, along with where it would be located and who would operate it, is still unknown. Mulroy, in the past, had suggested building a crime lab in a building that was once the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Memphis crime lab. That building became vacant after TBI moved its crime lab to Jackson in April 2021.

"[That building is] still here. It has infrastructure that's suitable for a crime lab," Mulroy said. "It has portable equipment for a crime lab. It is not being used. The ideal solution would be to give us that — and a number of us local leaders have been advocating for exactly that, despite the efforts of a number of us... What we're hearing from the state administration is that we can't have that building. It has already been promised to [the Department of Children's Services] for an intake center.

"I find that regrettable because I believe that the building is particularly suitable for crime lab purposes, more so than an intake center."

TBI's crime lab in Jackson is where the Memphis Police Department and Shelby County Sheriff's Office currently send rape kits, and other forensic evidence, to be tested. Rape kits have been questioned due to backlogs in the past.

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Mulroy has said that he does not intend for a Memphis crime lab to prevent local law enforcement from having evidence examined at the TBI lab in Jackson but rather would be a way to expedite certain tests, like rapid DNA testing, cell phone forensics for non-homicide crimes and confirmatory ballistics for non-homicide crimes.

Wednesday, he added the concept of a 24-hour ballistics lab as a possibility for the local crime lab.

"...Once a gun comes into evidence, immediately — within 24 hours — we could photograph it, test fire it and enter it into the national eTrace system, which can provide a trail of former gun owners and users," he said. "Currently, such a process can easily take months. But with additional resources, we can do it within 24 hours. Getting such information back within a few days from eTrace, and using it to identify suspects or persons with knowledge and we can question, could be a game changer for solving gun crimes."

What entity would run the crime lab is also up for debate. Mulroy said he knows that the county mayor's office does not want to run it and that he had been told by law enforcement representatives that the crime lab should not be run by law enforcement so it can "be viewed as independent."

In that spirit, Mulroy said his original plan was to have it be a joint venture between the City of Memphis and Shelby County Government, with an independent board set up to run it. Another idea, brought to him by data officer Vishant Shah, was a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit model that would do forensics for anyone. A similar model is being used in Houston, Mulroy said.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, or (901)208-3922, and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter, @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis, Shelby Co. want their own crime lab. What would it look like?