GARLAND, TX - The Texas Department of Public Safety dedicated a brand new 60,000 square foot crime lab in Garland this morning. Josh Stevenson was there and files this report.

The lab is full of complex machines like robots that can extract DNA, determine the alcohol content of blood, and there is even an indoor gun range, but it’s not a television show - it's the DPS crime lab in Garland.

Manuel Valadez, Jr. runs the brand new lab. The lab will help law enforcement agencies all across North Texas solve crimes.

"We cover counties all the way to Oklahoma, and Arkansas," said Valadez.

The facility has increased the size up the lab from 7,000 square feet in the old building to 60,000 square feet in the new lab. But the new building isn't just bigger, it also offers more sophisticated equipment. One piece of new technology will help speed up the process of identifying DNA.

"In our old facility we did not have the robotic extraction, and that is going to speed up our process of extracting DNA from stains to take a DNA profile," said James Nichols, a DNA specialist.

Although the lab was just dedicated this morning, some labs like the drug lab here have been operating since this summer. Others like the firearms lab are just coming online.

"For example is someone was shot, we could analyze the clothing and approximate how close they were standing, and this could authenticate of invalidate a suspects story," said forensic scientist Clayton Jeffress.

The new lab means residents of the 40 counties in North Texas it serves can rest assured, the forensic capabilities available to law enforcement agencies in the area are second to none.

"I think it is a state-of-the-art crime lab. I think we stack up to anybody in the country," said Valadez.