Architectural rendering The 2025 Minnesota Legislature included a $67 million appropriation for crime lab to be built in Mankato.

MANKATO — The news of a $67 million Minnesota BCA (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension) crime lab in the Minnesota Legislature final bonding bill was music to the ears of New Ulm and Brown County criminal authorities.

The 56,000-square-foot facility planned to be built north of the Blue Earth County Justice Center in east Mankato is expected to include 50 agents and 150 employees to do evidence testing, cyber crime investigations and financial forensics as soon as late 2026.

The BCA currently has crime labs in St. Paul and Bemidji.

“For my office, this is a great addition,” said Brown County Attorney Chuck Hanson. “This should result in speedier turnaround times for criminal investigations. Not only the proximity, but the additional staffing should hopefully clear up some of the congestion we current have for evidence testing.”

Hanson said the new facility should make a big difference for all Minnesota law enforcement agencies not in the Twin Cities, especially those in southern Minnesota.

“The BCA does a great job for us, but it is simply a numbers issue with the quantity of materials they are provided for testing and investigation across the State,” Hanson said.

Brown County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jeremy Reed echoed Hanson’s thoughts.

“This should make things a lot more efficient and less time-consuming for things like evidence and technology that go to St. Paul now,” said Reed.

“It should give us a lot quicker return on evidence. It should help speed things up on our end with quicker processing,” said New Ulm Police Dept. Investigator T. J. Ibberson.

New Ulm Police Department Senior Investigator Chris Moellenhoff was pleased to hear about the BCA project.

“That would be awesome, huge for southern Minnesota law enforcement. It’s been a long time coming. A 30-minute drive is better than two hours,” said Moellenhoff. “That would save us taking road trips to St. Paul. With some cases we have physical evidence we can’t mail, so we drive to St. Paul. Some sometimes we have locked evidence like cell phones. The BCA has more equipment to work with them. Sometimes we have urine or blood samples for DWI cases that we have to mail certified to St. Paul. With a Mankato lab, would could drive samples over there.”

Currently, the BCA rents four offices in the Blue Earth County Justice Center.

The new building would also be used for law enforcement training, criminal investigative assistance, drug chemistry, biology/DNA, digital media labs and other BCA activities.

The BCA says law enforcement services demand is at an all-time high. In the last five years, cybercrime tips involving exploited children are up 353%, digital evidence, almost unheard of 10 years ago, increased by 10% over the past 3 years and substance evidence submissions have more than doubled since 2010, with fentanyl coming a significant public safety threat.

Other crime spikes are happening in cases involving digital evidence, controlled substances such as fentanyl, and DNA analysis, among other things.

The BCA partners with the FBI and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and state and local criminal justice agencies on investigations, Amber Alerts, Crime Alerts and criminal justice data integration.

Priorities for the next 1-3 years include implementing the Adult-Use Cannabis Act and Clean Slate Act automated expungements, continuing backlog reduction efforts to achieve a lab-wide, 90-day turnaround time goal.

For more information, visit dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca.