ForensicsFBI opens new forensics lab for local law agencies in New Mexico

Thanks to a sophisticated new FBI forensics laboratory at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, local police now have access to cutting edge technology that can help streamline investigations.

“We can do here in hours and days what used to take weeks and months,” saidDarrin Jones, a special FBI agent who managed the construction of the facility.

At the New Mexico Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, local law enforcement officers will now be able to use the FBI’s advanced investigation tools for cybercrimes, child pornography, and intellectual property crimes. In addition, the lab will be able to lend its digital forensics capabilities to violent crimes and other investigations.

With the help of the lab’s personnel, local officers can learn how to use high-tech equipment to gather data from smartphones, hard drives, and other devices instead of shipping it to the FBI’s national digital forensics lab where it will be queued behind hundreds of other requests.

In a demonstration, Virginia Batemena, a senior FBI forensic examiner, showed how officers can simply place a confiscated cell phone in a special lab kiosk that extracts text messages, photos, and calling data.

“It can take anywhere from an hour to ten minutes to get the information,” Bateman said.

Officials said the lab, which is staffed twenty-four hours a day, will help work through backlogs and speed up requests to examine evidence. Forensic experts from the labs will also be dispatched to crime scenes to expedite investigations.

Ray Schultz, Albuquerque’s police chief, welcomed the lab stating that it would be a great asset especially for departments struggling with budget cuts. Now that the lab has been opened, local police departments will no longer have to spend valuable resources on constantly updating technology.

“Typically, by the time we get the money to buy something, it’s outdated,” Schultz said. “With this lab, we have a one-stop shop where the FBI will help keep us updated and will train officers on new equipment.”

Aside from assisting with investigations, Gordon Eden, the head of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, said the lab can help district attorneys gather stronger evidence in prosecutions.

The new FBI lab is the second one to be housed on a university campus and the sixteenth of its kind in the nation. It comes as part of the FBI’s broader efforts to provide local law enforcement agencies with a full-service, one-stop forensics laboratory and training center.