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Technicians work in a mitochondrial DNA lab at |
They helped identify the killer of Sofia Silva and Kati and Kristin Lisk, victims of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon and a serial killer operating from Texas to Kentucky.
Now these high-tech and scientifically savvy sleuths have set up shop on the outskirts of Stafford County.
Today, the FBI officially opens its $130 million state-of-the art crime laboratory on the grounds of the Quantico Marine Corps Base. It is a facility seven years in the making that features separate, secure space for evidence that may come in from anywhere across the globe.
The lab's mission is to provide free analysis of everything from blood to bones to bomb fragments for local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies. But its examiners also work by request on international cases, Lab Director Dwight Adams said during a behind-the-scenes tour of the 463,000-square-foot structure yesterday.
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FBI lab facts Cost: $130 million Size: 463,000 square feet Employees: 650 Parking: 900-space deck Established: Nov. 24, 1932 Location: Quantico Marine Corps Base is lab's fourth location and its first outside northwest Washington. Role: Provide forensic analysis for local, state and federal law enforcement without charge. Tours: The public has been able to glimpse inside the lab as part of FBI headquarters tours since the 1930s. Tours will not be available in the new building, but there will be lab exhibits at the headquarters in Washington. --Source: FBI headquarters |
The new facility--built in three adjoining, five-story towers--is the fourth home for the lab that was created 70 years ago. Until now, it had always operated in the nation's capital--first in the old Southern Railway Building at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, then within the Department of Justice and more recently at FBI headquarters inside the J. Edgar Hoover Building.
But not only had the lab outgrown its space, the headquarters was never ideal for what was established to be the nation's premier crime laboratory.
As Adams walked the pristine hallways of the new facility yesterday, he highlighted the value of having a building designed as a site for evaluating evidence as opposed to office space.
He pointed out the glass-enclosed work spaces where people analyze DNA, hairs, fibers, paint samples and firearms. And then he walked reporters through what he referred to as a "bio-vestibule"--the walkway separating the lab area from offices.
That walkway, he pointed out, is where people take off their lab coats and wash their hands before going from their tiled, sterile work stations to the carpeted cubicles that house their desks.
The lab area--which makes up two-thirds of every floor--is so sterile, in fact, that it has 100 percent clean air.
One of the chief benefits of the new lab is increased work space, which Adams and Deputy Assistant Director Tod Hildebrand said has tripled from what forensic examiners had inside the Hoover Building.
The lab also has elevators exclusively for evidence--a stark contrast from the Hoover Building, where everything from schoolkids on tour to evidence from an unsolved killing would be transported via the same lift.
Evidence transport is not only secure, it is also extraordinarily convenient in the new rectangular structure. Bays to the rear of the building vary in size, with the largest built to accommodate an 18-wheeler or something as large as an airplane fuselage.
The one thing the facility lacks is a place to eat, but that, Adams said, is part of phase two. The FBI has designed a $25 million training and conference center that would include an employee cafeteria, but that has not yet received funding.
Lab employees have known the move to Quantico was coming for several years and many relocated to the Fredericksburg region with that in mind.
Since the FBI started moving operations into Stafford, Hildebrand said about 100 of the 125 people eligible for relocation assistance have taken advantage of the offer. Hildebrand--who, like Adams, lives in Spotsylvania County--said most moved to Stafford or Spotsylvania. A few others moved to Prince William County.
The lab brought a total of 650 employees into the region. Of those, many are technicians--earning an average annual salary of $45,000--or examiners--earning an average of $80,000.
Adams said he anticipates the move to the Fredericksburg area being a plus for hiring.
"This will be a lot more attractive to a lot more people than going into D.C.," he said.
Fred Broccolo, a specialist in the Hazardous Materials Response Unit and a Spotsylvania resident, said he's thrilled with the new facility. His unit had been in the nearby FBI Academy, split into two separate areas of the basement.
The move has reunited them in a glass-paneled structure.
"Now we can see the sun," he said with a broad smile.
Hildebrand said he, too, is smiling about the features of the new lab. While the move didn't bring any new employees, it did result in $25 million worth of new and improved equipment.
He said that equipment and the vastly improved workspace should help improve both the quality and quantity of forensic examinations.
Already, the lab conducts at least a million examinations a year. Some of that work has come under well-publicized scrutiny recently.
Currently, a lab scientist faces a misdemeanor charge after telling supervisors she gave false testimony in a Kentucky courtroom on lead-bullet analysis.
In addition, the agency has asked the National Academy of Sciences to review the bureau's procedures for bullet analysis and the Justice Department's Inspector General's Office is investigating a lab technician for her work in DNA analysis.
Adams defended the lab's work yesterday. He said he's confident of its credibility in the public's eye, and noted that when problems come up, they are immediately addressed.
He said the lab stresses to employees that integrity is "paramount." "We're not out to prove a thing. We're out to provide the truth," he said.
Despite some problems, Adams said the unveiling of the new crime lab is the fulfillment of a 75-year-old dream of one of the bureau's early agents.
Special Agent Samuel Hardy, it seems, had a dream back in 1928 that he shared in a Dec. 28 memo to then-Director J. Edgar Hoover. According to Adams, Hardy said he thought the bureau needed to create a lab that he believed could be the best in the world.
"We brought world-class scientists, we brought world-class technology and now we have a world-class facility to do our work in," Adams said yesterday. "I think this brings his dream to reality."
