- At the Bexar County Medical Examiner, via the SA Express News: "Help on way for crowded crime lab, ME's office," Oct. 15, and
- A new DPS facility in Laredo, as reported in the Laredo Sun: "Ground breaking ceremony for new crime lab," Oct. 7
Meanwhile, in Laredo, reported the Sun, DPS's:
new Laredo crime lab will be 17,143 square feet. Completion is projected to be in September 2013. Initial staffing level is to be 10 lab employees with room to increase to 15 employees.
Services offered in the Laredo lab will be controlled substance analysis, firearms/tool mark examinations and serology/DNA analysis, all provided at no cost to law enforcement agencies.
Law enforcement officers served by the Laredo crime lab will no longer have to submit evidence for these services to existing labs located 100-150 miles from Laredo.
Congressman Henry Cuellar will also announce the secured funding of $250,000 federal dollars to be used for the new extended DPS Crime lab in equipment, as allocated by Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar.
In aggregate, the state recently lost some crime lab capacity when the fee for service lab run by Sam Houston State in Montgomery shut down this summer because of an issue with its lease. DPS crime labs in particular face backlogs so large they've begun to limit testing submissions, and overall capacity doesn't appear to be expanding nearly as fast as demand.
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5 comments:
In my opinion, this may be the single most important criminal justice issue the legislature will deal with next session. Given the increasing reliance on forensic testing by law enforcement, prosecutors, and even defense attorneys; we need more and better funded crime labs in this state. Realistically, this a matter that must be addressed at the state level as should the matter of quality control. Reducing the likelihood and potential for wrongful convictions, increasing opportunities for meaningful post-conviction relief for those who might be wrongfully convicted--both of these objectives are inherently connected in many instances to the availability of quality forensic testing. This is not a liberal or conservative issue. It's simply a matter of doing what we can to improve our system and making sure we're getting it right.
It's a biggie, I agree - and there's no concerted advocacy interest pushing for more crime lab funding. Not in the same way there is, for example, for privatized mental health hospitals or building more private-run ISFs. The only monied interests here, and they're not big players, are the private labs, and their interest is in limiting growth of public sector labs so they gobble up a greater share of future growth.
I wonder if, especially with all the changeover in House leadership, many folks at the Lege are paying attention to the fact that lab backlogs are reaching crisis mode? The story about DPS labs refusing certain low-level samples and even limiting samples in murder cases surprisingly got little statewide play or attention. To me it's a big deal, which is why I write about it here, but you notice it's never a topic greeted with much interest, much less the urgency it probably deserves.
In this era of fiscal austerity, I'm not sure that any additional criminal justice spending will be a major priority at the Lege.
With that said, I think if the concept could be presented to the the key committee members and shown to be supported by all interested parties, i.e., law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, Innocence Project, etc., maybe a little extra funding could be freed up. You never know.
There is no single, simple solution to the capacity problem. But one necessary element to the solution, which has been discussed here previously, is the revamping of the DPS lab system to a fee-for-service/cost recovery model. That would immediately do two good things: 1) it would force agencies and DA offices to think about what they need tested at the front end, and create an economic incentive to only do what is needed; and 2) it would encourage cities in and around metropolitan counties that have their own fee-for-service laboratories to use those laboratories rather than the free DPS labs.
"I'm not sure that any additional criminal justice spending will be a major priority at the Lege."
There's always new money for jail space. Especially with the tea partiers headed that way. They don't mind more spending, as long as it's by them.
Rage
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