MEMPHIS, Tenn. - For several months, elected officials have raised the issue of getting a forensic crime lab in Memphis, as the community and law enforcement remains consumed with a violent crime wave.
The Shelby County District Attorney's Office has publicly called out the need for one, saying that diverting resources to take crime evidence to and from the closest official evidence lab in Jackson, Tenn., hampers and delays prosecutions.
The Shelby County Board of Commissioners are poised to consider action during a committee meeting Wednesday that could mark the first step in making that happen.
Commissioners will take a look at a proposed Public Safety Initiatives Grant allocation of $50,000 to go toward the Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission, which, in turn, would study the potential benefits of creating the lab.
The money, under the resolution, would be pulled from the county's General Fund.
Also notable during the meeting, which begins at 8:30 a.m., is a resolution to request that the Shelby County Clerk's Office provide a Corrective Action Plan that addresses the recent recommendations from the state's Treasury Division following a 2023 Fiscal Year audit.
That resolution is sponsored by Commissioner Mick Wright.
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