San Diego County Sheriff's Department Crime Laboratory

The ground-up San Diego County Sheriff's Department Crime Lab consists of 60,000 sq. ft. of evidence storage, 44,000 sq. ft. of laboratory space and 54,000 sq. ft. of Sheriff’s Central Investigations Division and crime lab administrative office space. This facility will support the existing and future functions of the San Diego Sheriff’s Regional Crime Laboratory and related Sheriff’s functions.

Power supply will come in part from two large solar arrays on campus. The project also includes a central plant expansion to accommodate additional requirements of the new crime lab.

The crime lab provides specialized analysis in controlled substances and alcohol, DNA and trace evidence, latent fingerprint development and comparison, questioned documents, firearms and tool marks, cold case forensic team and forensic biology rapid response.

DPR is self-performing metal studs framing, drywall, acoustic ceilings, and the basement concrete pour. Once completed, the basement will be 25 ft. floor to floor and will be loaded with racks to be used for evidence storage. Having highly delicate material stored underground presented some challenges, as basements are inherently damp and keeping the evidence dry was paramount in planning. For this reason, all of the basement wall waterproofing received special attention for quality control and required construction of a permanent dewatering system — all built through a record rain season. The basement will also include a cold room for storage of temperature sensitive evidence, in addition to a bullet recovery tank, drug vault and a high value vault. There will also be an onsite ballistics range.