The department will use the grant to purchase an additional piece of equipment that will speed up analysis of drug evidence submitted by Alabama law enforcement agencies. The Direct Analysis in Real Time instrument will be located at the department’s Montgomery Regional Laboratory. With the capacity to analyze 1,000 evidence items per month, department officials said the new DART instrument will help reduce an evidence analysis backlog. The department analyzes more than 60,000 pieces of drug evidence annually.

“Scientific analysis of evidence by the Department of Forensic Sciences often determines whether a suspect is found guilty or set free,” Bentley said. “This equipment will help the department analyze drug evidence quickly and accurately.”

The new DART instrument in Montgomery will analyze evidence collected from central and south Alabama while a similar device at the department’s Hoover Regional Laboratory will analyze evidence from central and north Alabama.

Department officials said the equipment can detect “designer drugs,” such as synthetic marijuana and is more efficient than the current standard analysis method using a Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer.

A recent executive order signed by Bentley makes possession and sale of synthetic marijuana, commonly called “Spice,” illegal, and Forensic Sciences staff are called upon to help law enforcement officers to identify the substance.

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is administering the grant from funds made available to the state by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Bentley notified Michael Sparks, ADFS director, that the grant had been approved.

Contact: Russell Sellers, Larry Childers