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RALEIGH — Rockingham County’s five small cities would share a crime scene investigation unit under a plan outlined in legislation filed last week.

Although it might sound like a small-town version of the popular CBS television franchise, law enforcement officials say police in Eden, Madison, Mayodan, Reidsville and Stoneville need better tools to collect evidence.

“My department doesn’t have the money to properly train a crime scene investigator nor the money to purchase the equipment,” Madison police Chief Perry Webster said.

Currently, Webster said, his force relies on the Rockingham County sheriff’s department or the State Bureau of Investigation to collect evidence. But those agencies, he said, have their own crime scenes to process.

The new forensics bureau would be modeled on a Wake County program, said Rockingham County District Attorney Phil Berger Jr.

He said it would be particularly helpful in investigating crimes that don’t merit the use of the SBI’s resources but are still serious crimes, such as someone shooting through a parked car.

“There is something of a CSI effect in court,” Berger acknowledged, with juries expecting to be dazzled by scientific wizardry even in fairly basic cases. While Marg Helgenberger won’t be playing with lasers or sifting through bug larvae as part of the proposed unit, more mundane techniques such as collecting fingerprints and shell casings will go a long way toward prosecuting most crimes.

Part of the need for the new unit, Berger said, has been created by an increasing gang problem. Situated between Greensboro, Danville, Burlington and Winston-Salem, Rockingham County’s towns are a crossroads of sorts.

“We experience the same crime but don’t have the same technology or capability” of police departments in larger cities, Berger said.

That’s why in addition to processing crime scenes, Berger said, plans for the new unit would have a special focus on curtailing gang-related crimes.

For example, he said, the unit would be responsible for coordinating “call-ins” like those used in High Point to warn potential gang members who have committed lesser crimes about the consequences of further transgressions.

Berger said he has applied to the Governor’s Crime Commission for a grant to help fund the agency. Towns would have to kick in matching funds and under legislation filed last week, judges could order defendants to pay an extra fine to help fund the unit.

Sen. Phil Berger, a Republican and the district attorney’s father, is the bill’s primary sponsor and said he did not think the legislation would be controversial.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com