The Colorado Springs Police Department and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office formed a joint forensic laboratory at the time the Police Operations Center first opened in 1993. Located at 705 S. Nevada Ave., it is responsible for processing scenes of violent and other serious crimes.

The lab's responsibilities and goals include providing impartial and professional collection, documentation, evaluation and analysis of a variety of physical evidences.

The Forensic Chemists, Firearms Examiners, Crime Scene Investigators, Latent Fingerprint Analysts, and DNA Analysts provide analysis and expert courtroom testimony for a variety of forensic disciplines.

Each of the Crime Scene Investigators, Chemists, DNA Analysts, Latent Fingerprint Analysts and Firearms Examiners are regularly subpoenaed to testify about his or her work pertaining to the cases they work. When appearing in court, they must establish expertise in their particular discipline prior to offering opinion testimony.

Safety, staffing, technology and training are some of the prominent issues that are regularly addressed by the lab. As a forensic support service unit, the lab frequently provides assistance to the Patrol Bureau, the Investigations Division, the Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Division, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's Office.

The Metro Forensic Laboratory consists of the following sections: