Tuesday, Montana legislators hear a bill that would set aside money to build a crime lab in Eastern Montana.
Republican Representative Dale Mortensen is sponsoring House Bill 512, and is a former police officer who now works as a private investigator in Billings.
Mortensen says there’s a dangerously long backlog at Montana’s only crime lab in Missoula, which is delaying trials.
“Say drug evidence testing out there that’s 7-8 months old that … hasn’t even been assigned to a lab tech.”
He also says having only one lab causes an unnecessary amount of driving time for police and crime lab techs as they transport evidence by hand.
“Well over 1,000 miles round trip from Missoula to Glendive and you could have one or two lab techs drive all the way for...literally no more than two minutes of testimony.”
This bill is scheduled for a House Appropriations hearing Tuesday at the Capitol.