A. It is the duty of the university of New Mexico, the human services department, the department of health and all other state departments, divisions, bureaus, boards, commissions, institutions and officials, free of charge or reward, to cooperate with the law enforcement officers of the state and the New Mexico state police, and to render to them such services and assistance relative to microanalysis, handwriting, toxicology, chemistry, photography, medicine, ballistics and all other sciences and matters relating to or that would aid in controlling crime and the detection, apprehension, identification and prosecution of criminals.

B. Beginning July 1, 2018 and through June 30, 2021, the department of public safety forensic laboratories bureau shall assist a law enforcement agency crime laboratory in a class A county with a population greater than six hundred thousand according to the most recent federal decennial census by processing and testing sexual assault examination kits that consist of one or more samples of biological material collected pursuant to a medical examination of a sexual assault victim for that laboratory. The bureau may charge a laboratory that the bureau assists as provided in this subsection a fee of up to eight hundred dollars ($800) for each sexual assault examination kit that the bureau processes and tests. Fees collected by the bureau in accordance with this subsection shall be deposited in the sexual assault examination kit fund.

C. As used in this section, "biological material" means material that is derived from a human body and includes bodily fluids, hair and skin cells.

History: Laws 1935, ch. 149, § 7; 1941 Comp., § 40-304; 1953 Comp., § 39-3-4; Laws 1977, ch. 257, § 46; 1978, ch. 3, § 1; 1979, ch. 202, § 39; 2017, ch. 98, § 1.

The 2017 amendment, effective June 16, 2017, required the department of public safety forensic laboratories bureau to assist certain local law enforcement crime laboratories for a three year period with testing samples of biological material collected pursuant to a medical examination of a sexual assault victim, allowed the bureau to charge a fee for assisting in testing samples of biological material, and defined "biological material" for purposes of this section; added the subsection designation "A."; in Subsection A, after "It", deleted "shall be" and added "is", after "human services department, the", added "department of" and after "health", deleted "and environment department", and after "departments", added "divisions"; and added Subsections B and C.