{"id":365397,"date":"2026-06-18T07:19:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/365397\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T07:19:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:19:49","slug":"long-beach-city-council-approves-19-8-million-plan-for-new-police-crime-lab-long-beach-post-news-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/365397\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach City Council approves $19.8 million plan for new police crime lab \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Long Beach City Council on Tuesday approved a $14.8 million contract<\/a> to build a new forensics laboratory in a city-owned downtown office building at 125 Elm Ave., replacing the police department\u2019s 25-year-old facility in West Long Beach. With design costs and other contingencies, the entire project is expected to cost $19.8 million.<\/p>\n

Public Works Director Josh Hickman said construction should start this fall and finish by spring 2028. The new facility will be on the third floor of a building that\u2019s already home to a senior center and the city\u2019s new energy department.<\/p>\n

According to plans<\/a> unveiled in a presentation Tuesday night, the facility \u201cwill provide a modern, state-of-the-art\u201d lab with evidence processing areas, evidence processing areas and storage, laboratories and office space.<\/p>\n

Crews will also install new room dividers, replace ceilings and upgrade the building\u2019s electrical systems and plumbing, officials said, as well as renovations to the roof and parking structure. A space will be set aside on the floor for a future DNA lab in an upcoming project, Hickman said.<\/p>\n

The forensic unit, which analyzes and tests evidence gathered at crime scenes, has since 2001 operated out of a 17,400-square-foot warehouse at 1400 Canal Ave. that the city was renting but now plans to buy in an attempt to save money.<\/p>\n

The city says it\u2019s paying $28,966 per month on a month-to-month basis \u2014 25% higher than the previous rent \u2014 since its lease expired in April. Negotiations for a short-term lease extension have failed, officials said, while terms of the lease require the city to pay for substantial restoration work as part of moving out.<\/p>\n

Considering those costs, the City Council also approved the purchase of the building for $6.4 million, using \u201cidle cash in the Capital Projects Fund Group\u201d that must eventually be covered by selling the building or issuing debt.<\/p>\n

The crime lab construction is set to be covered mostly by $12.5 million in bond financing that the city plans to put before council members this fall. Using current interest rates, the city says it could expect to pay nearly $764,000 to pay back that debt over the next 30 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Long Beach City Council on Tuesday approved a $14.8 million contract to build a new forensics laboratory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-365397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}