DPS TO START BILLING FOR LAB WORK

  

Local police and sheriff’s departments will soon have to pay the State of Texas for crime lab work.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has announced that beginning September first, they will begin charging local law enforcement agencies for forensic lab work.  The DPS crime labs will charge fees for services such as drug, alcohol, toxicology and DNA testing.  The Texas Legislature passed a law requiring the DPS begin charging fees in order to make up an $11.5 million budget deficit.

Across the state, local prosecutors, sheriffs and police chiefs expressed surprise and anger that the DPS did not disclose these fees earlier, when counties and cities were preparing their budgets.