North Dakota State Crime Lab facing challenging staffing issue

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A declining number of employees at the State Crime Lab in Bismarck has limited what evidence can be processed for law enforcement agencies. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says eight of 23 lab employees have left in the last two years, including five in 2021, because they’ve been offered higher salaries elsewhere, including one employee who left for a position in Georgia where the salary was $30,000 more. The lab has eliminated its firearms and latent fingerprint divisions due to the staffing level. Stenehjem says South Dakota was doing firearms analyses for the lab, but is now overwhelmed and unable to help anymore.