EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH - BRPD is asking the Metro Council to approve their spending nearly $200,000 to hire two crime lab analysts.

From robberies to shootings, the Baton Rouge Police Department keeps the State Police Crime Lab busy processing evidence. According to State Police, BRPD sends a substantial amount of evidence to the crime lab, more than most other agencies.

To assist with processing all of that evidence, BRPD is hoping to spend a little more than $180,000 to hire two crime lab analysts.

“We saw that there was a need for it, so we started the process of being able to have the funds available to hire the analyst to assist us in working these cases,” said BRPD spokesman Sgt. L’Jean McKneely.

BRPD already has two analysts at the State Police Crime Lab, but the two newest hires will focus on fingerprints, which -if processed quicker- could help lighten police caseload.

“The quicker we get that information, the faster we're able to put together a case and possibly make an arrest,” said McKneely. “So that individual that's committing those crimes, we can get them off the streets faster than the process we were using.”

Although the two analysts will work exclusively on evidence for BRPD and the money to pay them will come from BRPD, those analyst will be hired, trained, and supervised by the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab.

“They're only going to be working Baton Rouge police cases, which will help us in our caseload and getting the cases pushed forward with them working it and the information brought back to the detectives so they can continue working the case,” said McKneely.