30 days in: New OSBI director Greg Mashburn brings focus on justice for victims

The new OSBI director has been on the job for 30 days.

Greg Mashburn is a former DA in central Oklahoma and says the first thing he told his new employees is that the agency will be a no-drama zone.

He says their sole focus will be on the mission of solving cases and getting justice for victims. When News On 6’s Lori Fullbright interviewed him, he said there were three things he believes will make that happen.

As a prosecutor for nearly 30 years, Greg Mashburn understands the need to take care of victims during the criminal justice process, so he's going to hire a statewide victim coordinator.

"So the family is educated on what's happening, what we're doing, information we can share with them and our cold cases, just calling those families every few months and saying we haven't forgotten about you, we're still there for you, we're still working the case," he said.

He knows agencies get frustrated when waiting on lab reports from OSBI for weeks or months so that cases can move forward in the courts, so he's excited about the new Rapid DNA machines in the lab that can get results in 90 minutes.

"We're talking 2-3 month turnaround in the lab," he said. "You could put a rush on it and get it down to weeks, but 90 minutes, that's just a whole ‘nother level."

Plus, OSBI has a Fast Trax mobile gun testing unit, so rather than agencies sending a gun to the lab to be tested and entered into the national database called NIBIN, the OSBI can go to them.

"We can put our mobile unit into say, Tahlequah, and all area departments can bring us guns in their property rooms, hand it to us, we can fire it, enter it into the NIBIN system, and hand it right back to them. We can do 100 guns in an afternoon."

They work a lot of violent crimes and drug-related crimes, but he says the unit that works on child sex predators is busier than ever. He says you wouldn't leave a child's bedroom window open at night, but parents are allowing that window into the outside world by allowing children to sit in front of screens unsupervised.