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GREENSBORO - SBI director Robin Pendergraft and Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes flanked Attorney General Roy Cooper as he cut a ribbon tied across the entrance to the SBI's newest facility, the Triad Regional Crime Laboratory, on Tuesday morning.

"This is your lab," Pendergraft said, addressing the crowd of law enforcement officials - six sheriffs and a collection of police chiefs, district attorneys, U.S. Marshals and other law enforcement officers - gathered in the parking lot for the event. "Make yourself at home."

The lab, the third the State Bureau of Investigation has opened in the state, will serve 12 counties and handle evidence for about 6,000 cases per year, according to the SBI. The lab is on West Meadowview Road.

Specialists at the lab can help other law enforcement officers process evidence by analyzing drug chemistry, toxicology, latent evidence such as footprints or fingerprints that are not visible to the eye, and computer forensics.

To begin, 15 people will work at the 10,000-square-foot lab, including chemists, latent analysts and computer forensic analysts.

Analysis of DNA, firearms and trace evidence will still be handled in Raleigh.

The lab will help get drug dealers, child predators and violent criminals off the streets faster, Cooper said.

"Experts who can help us catch these criminals will be living and working in the Triad," Cooper said.

The Triad lab will take a third of the latent fingerprint cases that have been sent to Raleigh, said James Faggart, a special agent who works with latent evidence in the Raleigh lab. Faggart estimated the extra help will cut in half the time it takes to return the results of an analysis.

The toxicology lab will handle blood alcohol and drug samples, while the drug chemistry lab will determine if items contain drugs or drug residue. Some drug chemists also respond to suspected methamphetamine lab sites.

Computer forensic analysts work on child predator cases, homicides and other violent crimes, analyzing the computers of suspects to find printed directions or Internet activity that could tie a suspect to a crime. Computer forensic analysts also work on digital video and photo evidence.

Jimmy Schroering, a computer analyst who works in the Raleigh lab, said most of his cases involve breaking and entering, and larceny.

"I'm glad we're getting it down here, because we're getting it closer to where they need it," Schroering said.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com