Tulsa Police get a building to help with their criminal investigations

The Tulsa Police Department now has a forensics garage where detectives can process cars used in crimes. <br/><br/>They've never had a facility like this before and as News on 6 crime reporter Lori

Friday, September 16th 2005, 10:34 am

By: News On 6

The Tulsa Police Department now has a forensics garage where detectives can process cars used in crimes.

They've never had a facility like this before and as News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright explains, it didn't cost taxpayers a penny.

Tulsa Police Sgt Mike Huff: "This is a facility that allows us to pull a car inside and black it all out and do chemical processing for blood or do a superglue test for prints on the car." Those chemical tests can be done inside the lab on small pieces of evidence, but for something big, like cars, crime scene investigators need to go to them.

Tulsa Police have never had one location that's accessible seven days a week with all the equipment necessary until now. Chris Nikkel Auto donated a vehicle lift worth thousands of dollars. Sgt Mike Huff: "Say, someone gets run over by a car and killed and we need to get underneath it to look for hair, blood, fibers, things like that."

The entire facility is being donated by Storey Wrecker and is already being used. And, the evidence can be presented to juries with confidence, because the facility is secure enough to prevent tampering. Bill Parsons with Storey Wrecker: "This building is monitored by three infrared cameras looking at us right now and motion detectors and it's monitored in dispatch and even a light blinks, they can react immediately."

Shows like CSI may still be more Hollywood than reality, Tulsa's officers are doing more hi-tech forensic evidence recovery than ever before and the building offers them the perfect place to do it, without taxpayers having to foot the bill. Storey Wrecker recently went through the bidding process to receive the city contract for wrecker service and included this forensic garage as part of that process after officers outlined their needs.