OSBI move was calculated

EDMOND – Moving a forensics crime lab from one location to another while preserving case work is a daunting task.

Officials from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation began the process of moving their lab from its old office in Oklahoma City to their new, state-of-the-art facility in Edmond a year ahead of time, said Charles Curtis, director of the forensics center.

A dedication ceremony for the new center was held Thursday.

A moving committee was formed to plan the move. The committee consulted with the FBI and other agencies that have faced similar moves in the past, Curtis said.

“Everything went remarkably well,” Curtis said. “Nothing was lost and nothing was broken. It’s just amazing.”

The move took just more than two weeks. It would have been impossible to move the whole facility at once without jeopardizing cases and investigations, so they split the move into sections.

“We wanted to minimize down time,” Curtis said. “No court proceedings were slowed.”

He did say that the number of active cases each department of the forensics center has is a little bit slowed, but still their average turnaround is only a day or two behind at about 12 days, Curtis said.

That is nowhere near long enough to risk the adjudication of a case, much less the investigation.

The moving process

The moving committee decided it would be best to move the center piece by piece in order to minimize down time, Curtis said.

Page 1 of 2

1 2 Next