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By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff WriterThe sheriff's forensics unit will get 5,500 square feet in a spacious new $2.4-million Land O'Lakes facility.
LAND O'LAKES - Coming next year: CSI - Pasco County.
A county-hired contractor will start construction this fall on a 23,664-square-foot building to house the Pasco County Sheriff's Office forensics unit, print shop, and evidence and records storage.
The new facility, which will be just south of the county jail in Land O'Lakes, will provide larger, state-of-the-art facilities for crime scene investigators. Their current quarters in the sheriff's New Port Richey office were designed for four or five investigators, but the office now has nine, spokesman Kevin Doll said.
A new forensics building is "definitely needed due to the growth of the agency and these units," Doll said.
The County Commission awarded a $2,416,164 contract this week to Bandes Construction Co. of Dunedin. The new building should be completed by next summer, said Frank James, the county's facilities management director.
Among other things, the forensics unit processes fingerprint evidence and analyzes security camera videotapes, Doll said. More complicated work, such as analyzing DNA or unknown chemicals, goes to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab.
Those Pasco investigators will have plenty of room once they head east to their new facility. It will have about 5,500 square feet for the forensics unit, including a large bay where investigators can lift evidence from cars and other large items. That work is now done at a garage that houses sheriff's vehicles.
Also featured on the first floor of the new building: a 2,800-square-foot room for records storage and a 1,300-square-foot print shop, where the forms and fliers used by sheriff's employees are created.
The second floor - all 13,000 square feet of it - will be stacked with evidence from pending and closed criminal investigations. State law requires that evidence in certain cases be kept for up to 50 years after someone is convicted, in case it needs to be reviewed later, Doll said.
He said the new building will provide a larger, centralized location for units scattered across the county. Forensics is in New Port Richey, the evidence room is at the old jail in Dade City, records are in the former district headquarters in Dade City, and the print shop is in the county jail.
Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is bhall@sptimes.com