DECATUR, Ga. — The state of Georgia would take a big step backward in fighting sexual assault and other crimes if the state cuts the budget of the state crime lab, according to crime victim advocates.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s budget proposes cuts across state government, the result of a tax cut enacted last year.
The crime lab at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is facing its share of those cuts.
Yet, the cost to crime victims is "devastating," according to Ann Burdges, president of Georgia-based End Violence Against Women International. "I think at this juncture we absolutely cannot afford to go backwards."
The state crime lab has a history of having to curb its ambitions in lean budgetary times. But as the economy boomed in recent years, so did the crime lab’s funding.
Less than six months ago, the GBI opened a new $34 million crime lab near Savannah.
But, with its main lab in DeKalb County, the GBI is now facing additional cuts.
The proposed $1.6 million in cuts will mean losing positions for three scientists and two lab techs this budget year, along with nine more scientists and two lab technicians next year. In addition, the lab will be forced to freeze another two scientist positions.
The GBI says those positions are currently vacant.
The crime lab, meanwhile, is struggling to eliminate a backlog of 44,000 cases.
GBI director Vic Reynolds says the agency can still do its work with less money.
"The easy thing for me to say, as director, is we’ve got to have more bodies," Reynolds told 11Alive News. "But I don’t believe that’s true. I believe we can find some ways to cut into those numbers without necessarily increasing the volume of people we have. Am I concerned about it? Of course, I am."
At the same time, Kemp has launched new initiatives to attack human trafficking and criminal street gangs.
Burdges says cutting the state crime lab's budget would undermine Kemp’s own efforts.
"That would certainly be counterintuitive, and most certainly devastating to the work we’ve managed to move forward with, in sexual assault investigations," Burdges said.
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