City of Columbus’ forensic lab gets funding from Lowndes County

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The City of Columbus’ forensic lab gets some financial help from Lowndes County.

At today’s meeting, Supervisors voted to use a share of the County’s ARPA money to buy a new gas mass spectrometer for the Forensics Lab.

The device is used to test drug samples.

Columbus formed its own drug lab in response to long wait times at the State crime lab but has been experiencing a backlog of its own lately.

It also takes in cases agencies in other cities and counties.

The new equipment would help relieve the backlog and get cases to court quicker.

The city and county attorneys will be writing up a contract that would allow the County priority access.

“If you think about the narcotics task force, that is a mix of county arrests and city arrests. If you look at the statistics, probably a little higher rate of arrest inside the city. So, the city benefits just as the county benefits from any increase in throughput,” said Trip Hairston, Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President.

The equipment would technically be owned by the county, but operated by the City Forensics Lab.

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