You know about the amazing work done by Glendale’s Police Department on a regular basis. But what about those in white lab coats? Glendale’s Verdugo Regional Crime Laboratory (VRCL) has only been around since 2012, but has proved its worth through hard work, solving crimes in both cold cases and active.
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) has backed this GPD project since 2009, acquiring funds to build the facility and program. On September 6, 2018, Rep. Schiff announced that the VRCL has been awarded $150,000 through the Fiscal Year 2018 SNA Capacity Enhancement and Backlog Reduction (CEBR) Program administered by the Department of Justice.
“The Verdugo Regional Crime Laboratory is accomplishing exactly what we hoped when it was created by improving public safety in Glendale, Pasadena, Burbank, and the surrounding communities and investigating a range of crimes including the most serious violent offenses,” Rep. Schiff said. “This grant will allow the lab to increase its capacity to process DNA samples from crime scenes, and also ensure that DNA evidence from rape kits does not go untested.”
The VRCL is comprised of the Forensic Biology Unit, Computer Forensics Unit, and Forensic Services Unit. Three Examiners staff the DNA lab, four examiners in Forensic Services (which includes NIBIN, Crime Scene Processing and Latent Prints), and four examiners in the Computer Forensics Lab. The staff also provides training to law enforcement officers and detectives in crime scene investigation, evidence collection and preservation.