Quote Originally Posted by JBMcB View Post
Why does the city of Detroit need a crime lab in the city proper? The city was unable to operate their own - I believe the phrase used was "shocking level of incompetence."

Crime labs should be as independent as possible. Putting a crime lab in the same building as the police HQ is a bad idea all around. It's bad enough that they get their funding by the organization doing the prosecution.
If they had a decent crime lab that worked in the city it would be a big deal. Unlike TV shows in which they magically generate DNA evidence in minutes, sending stuff to the state crime lab takes many months before results come back. It seems pretty stupid and inefficient to have the entire state of Michigan dependent on one lab for analysis of everything.