Seven months after Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine promised the state crime lab would remain in Bowling
Green, the DNA analysis lab has disappeared.
The DNA portion is just part of the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation office located in
Bowling Green.
But it was a vital part that is no longer a convenient local resource, according to Wood County
Prosecuting Attorney Paul Dobson.
"It removes that lab one more step from us," Dobson said.
Earlier this year, local officials were relieved when DeWine visited the local BCII site and reassured
them that the facility would stay put in Bowling Green, rather than move to Toledo as proposed by former
state attorney general Marc Dann.
"It’s not going to happen," DeWine said in May. "We’re staying here. We like the location.
It serves this part of the state well."
The Bowling Green location – one of just three such labs in the state – serves a large region of the
state, making it much more accessible to most law enforcement departments than Toledo would be,
according to Dobson.
Moving the DNA portion of the lab to Richfield, south of Cleveland, goes against DeWine’s promise, Dobson
said.
But BCII Superintendent Tom Stickrath viewed the move differently. Due to the advanced technology and
training involved with the DNA robotics system, it was decided to consolidate that system in Richfield.
However, the DNA staff will remain in Bowling Green and they will continue to review evidence to
determine if DNA material exists to be sent off to Richfield for testing.
The crime scene evidence can still be dropped off at the Bowling Green lab, and BCII staff will take care
of transporting it to Richfield if necessary.
The goal, Stickrath said, is to speed up response times on evidence testing.
According to Stickrath, BCII has seen a 24 percent increase in DNA casework in the past year. When DeWine
toured the Bowling Green site, he said the average time for DNA evidence results was 125 days. He noted
that his office was committed to reducing that lag time.
Stickrath stressed that the DNA lab still has a presence in Bowling Green, since the evidence still goes
through initial screening here.
Dobson doesn’t buy that explanation.
"They can put it in any wording they want to," he said. "But they moved the lab."
Dobson is worried this may be an effort to slowly whittle away at the Bowling Green crime lab.
"Frankly, it makes you wonder what’s the next thing. Is this just a piecemeal removal of BCII from
our lab?" he said.
Stickrath said that is not the case.
"We fully intend to keep our presence there," he said of the Bowling Green site. "We’ve
been very clear in our verbal assurance."
In fact, Stickrath said a sign of that commitment is two new employees that have been added recently to
the Bowling Green facility, and the decision to keep the DNA staff here.
"We made the conscious decision to leave them there," he said.
The Bowling Green lab was used to help solve 4,500 crimes last year, processing nearly 80,000 items of
evidence.