Extra money sought for BCA upgrades

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension assists local criminal justice agencies across the state.

But as demand for its services has grown, so have expenses. Now, Gov. Mark Dayton’s biennial budget calls for an additional $14 million to help meet some of those needs.

The request was heard Wednesday by the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee, but no action was taken.

Public Safety Commissioner Mona Dohman listens as Deputy Commissioner Mark Dunaski answers a question during the department’s budget presentation to the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee Feb. 11. Photo by Paul Battaglia

“We will increase staffing so we can continue to provide specialized investigations and support our local partners, increase the staffing so we can continue the high quality evidence analysis in our laboratory and it allows the lab to implement an equipment upgrade program,” said Deputy Public Safety Commissioner Mark Dunaski.

In the area of investigations, the budget proposal calls for an additional $3.2 million to hire, among others, six computer forensic examiners.

Evidence examination requests have increased to the Digital Forensics Examination Unit by 59 percent since 2006, according to the budget request. “In addition, this unit has had to turn away most requests for examination for cases other than homicides and child exploitation.”

The proposal also seeks $3 million for additional staffing to address predatory offender tracking, human trafficking and child pornography investigations, along with $1.2 million to develop a financial crimes unit to investigate identity theft and fraud related to state governmental agencies.

“Illegal unemployment payments to individuals and businesses, improper billing scams, false tax returns, workers compensation claims, insurance fraud and medical scams are just a few of the methods employed by criminals to illegally obtain state funds and benefits,” the budget proposal states. Several state agencies all have investigative components, but the five-person financial crimes unit would “provide coordination, experienced criminal investigators, analytical services and forensic support” to those agencies.

The request calls for an additional $1.6 million to allow the laboratory to implement a plan to make all lab equipment current by Fiscal Year 2020 and provide for a replacement plan moving forward.

“There is currently more than $2 million in instruments and equipment being used that is past its normal life expectancy in our laboratory,” Dunaski said.

The request also calls for $2.6 million to replace 138 Livescan devices that can capture an individual’s fingerprint electronically and automatically submit them to the BCA for processing.

“It allows a person’s identity to be known in a matter of minutes [allowing] criminal justice professionals to make real-time decisions concerning individuals with whom they are interacting,” Dunaski said. “The BCA maintains and disseminates more accurately, timely and complete data when fingerprints ae submitted electronically."

Also being sought is $1.1 million to increase the number of latent print examiners by five to decrease turnaround time. According to the budget request, the number of cases requiring latent print examination has grown by 40 percent in the last decade, while staffing levels are down 13 percent.

Other forensic laboratory additional funding requests are $350,000 annually for lab supplies and $300,000 each year to fund to reestablish the mitochondrial DNA lab.