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GBI crime lab awarded DUI grant

As the New Year begins, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is using a substantial grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to help fund DUI forensic work at the GBI Crime Lab.

The $70,000 GOHS grant pays for two much-needed laboratory technician positions at the GBI Division of Forensic Sciences in Atlanta. The grant was presented by GOHS Director Bob Dallas to GBI Director Vernon Keenan and Assistant Deputy Director Dr. George Herrin, Jr., at the DOFS Toxicology Department.

Since its creation in 1952, the GBI Division of Forensic Sciences carries the distinction of being the second statewide Crime Laboratory established in the U.S. Since then, the GBI Crime Lab has provided scientific support to Georgia’s Criminal Justice System.

The technicians funded from this GOHS Grant will assist with logging and analysis of biological samples submitted by law enforcement agencies from the Atlanta Metro Area. Using the most current scientific technologies and sophisticated instrumentation, the GBI Crime Lab provides blood alcohol or toxicology analysis in suspected DUI cases to officers, investigators and prosecutors across the state.

The Crime Lab Toxicology Section dedicates about 60 percent of its time working on evidence involving motorists suspected of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. DOFS processes some ten thousand suspected DUI cases every year. Results of their scientific tests play a crucial role in determining if charges will be brought against a motorist found to be driving under the influence.

“We are pleased to present this grant to our Crime Lab partners at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,” GOHS Director Bob Dallas said. “It is by sustaining this scientific partnership with the GBI that the lifesaving work done by Georgia’s traffic enforcement officers will continue to result in successful prosecutions of the impaired drivers who all too often become killers on our roads.”