The Unified Metropolitan Forensic Crime Lab is located just south of the Centennial Airport. The birth of the idea stemmed from a coffee shop conversation between Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock and Arapahoe County Sheriff David Walcher. “We had the idea of wouldn’t it be great if we could enter into some kind of a partnership and potentially build what would be a crime lab serving Arapahoe and Douglas Counties,” Walcher said. The men approached Aurora Police Department Police Chief Nick Metz and District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District George Brauchler to build the idea further. All four were in on the idea: A lab that would serve the entire judicial district of potentially four counties — Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, and Lincoln — with a population of about 1 million people.

Three years later, the Unified Metropolitan Forensic Crime Lab officially opened.