A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate funds to the department of justice to establish a state bureau of investigation crime laboratory in the piedmont triad area to meet the growing demand from local law enforcement and prosecutors for forensic crime scene evidence analysis in that area of the state.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Justice the sum of eight hundred ninety thousand three hundred seventy‑six dollars ($890,376) for the 2007‑2008 fiscal year to establish a new State Bureau of Investigation forensic crime laboratory in the Piedmont Triad area of the State that will serve primarily the counties of Alamance, Caswell, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Montgomery, Randolph, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, and Yadkin.  The funds shall be used to lease space for the new crime laboratory and to hire 12 new personnel, including three drug chemists, two computer forensic analysts, two forensic toxicologists, two latent evidence examiners, one evidence technician, and two office assistants.  The new personnel shall provide drug chemistry, fingerprint, and latent evidence analysis, along with computer forensics and drug toxicology services to local law enforcement agencies in the Piedmont Triad area, thereby providing thorough analyses of crime scenes in a timely, efficient manner.
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007.