MARSHALL — Plans for a new regional crime lab in southern Minnesota could be a help for law enforcement, local officials said this week.

This spring, $67 million was included in the state bonding bill, so the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension could build a lab facility in east Mankato. Lyon County Sheriff Eric Wallen said he didn’t yet know the specifics of the kinds of testing that would be available through the lab – but bringing evidence to the BCA in Mankato would be faster than traveling to facilities in St. Paul.

“Having one (lab) in the southern part of the state is hopefully going to speed up the processing time and turnaround,” Wallen said.

A new 56,000 square-foot BCA facility is planned to be built north of the Blue Earth County Justice Center, and completed by the end of 2026, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported in June. The facility is expected to house about 50 BCA agents, and feature evidence testing and a cyber crime lab.

The Minnesota BCA currently has crime labs in St. Paul and Bemidji.

The proposal to build a new regional lab in southern Minnesota came together in 2020, but it took years for the state Legislature to approve bonding dollars for the project.

Currently, investigators with the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office and Marshall Police Department take evidence to the St. Paul facilities for testing, said Wallen and Marshall Public Safety Director Jim Marshall. While some kids of samples can be mailed to the BCA, other evidence has to be physically brought to the Twin Cities, Marshall said. Wallen said evidence for testing is usually either shuttled up to the St. Paul lab with a BCA agent, or transported by local law enforcement staff.

In addition to the travel distance, “The concern always is the timeline of processing evidence,” Marshall said. With the amount of materials the BCA needs to process from around the state, some investigations can end up taking longer.

Wallen said the need for evidence testing has become more common in local law enforcement. Investigations do more DNA testing now, Wallen said. The need for evidence testing to verify the presence of illegal drugs has also grown. “It’s a prevalent issue,” Wallen said.

Marshall and Wallen said at this point, they didn’t know a lot about the plans for the new regional lab in Mankato, or what lab services will be provided there. “It’s yet to be seen what it will look like when it’s all said and done,” Wallen said.

But evidence testing being available closer to southwest Minnesota would be positive for law enforcement, they said.

“I’m sure it’s going to be helpful,” Marshall said.