HOUSTON CRIME LAB; CHRONICLE FOLLOW-UP STORY SAYS PARTS OF FINGERPRINT LAB REMAIN IN DISARRAY;

"Police officials are also mulling whether to extend the review of evidence to the 1990s in light of a recently uncovered misidentification of a suspect in 1996.
Decade of problems

As part of an investigation into problems at the lab last year, three employees were put on leave and one resigned. One of the employees on leave was later disciplined for destroying notes and retired this spring. Two others were cleared of wrongdoing.

But the problems, allowed to develop because of apparent neglect by police officials, go back at least a decade, documents show."

REPORTERS MOISES MENDOZA AND JAMES PINKERTON; THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE; Wikipedia informs us that, "The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. As of March 2008, it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States."

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"In the Houston Police Department's fingerprint lab, counter tops rot, leaky chemicals spill out of their packaging and some equipment doesn't work," the June 22, 2010 Chronicle story by reporters Moise Mendoza and James Pinkerton begins, under the heading, "Parts of HPD fingerprint lab remain in disarray."

"Four years after police became aware of troubles at the police facility that processes fingerprint evidence, and months after its problems first came to public light, parts of the lab remain in disarray, internal police documents show," the story continues.

"The documents obtained recently through an open records request also provide a glance into how HPD commanders allowed the problems at the lab to fester over the past decade. In the last 10 years, communication broke down between supervisors and ground-level employees. Meanwhile, command staff failed to give employees adequate training, didn't keep pace with technological advances and allowed the lab to physically deteriorate, according to audit reports.

The lab fell under public scrutinylast year following revelations that workers were making technical errors when analyzing prints. Since then, consultants have largely taken over the analysis portion of the fingerprint lab.

Tim Oettmeier, an executive assistant chief in charge of the unit, acknowledged that the lab was allowed to degrade over time. He said serious problems remain but he insisted the department is addressing them.

Oettmeier pointed to the creation of a standard operating manual for fingerprint analysts and the completion of a review of fingerprint evidence from 2004 to 2009 that found no suspect misidentifications, as some recent successes.

"We are committed to fixing this," Oettmeier said in an interview last week, explaining that problems in the lab's processing unit weren't noticed until an audit in April because officials were so focused on severe problems elsewhere in the lab.

City Council will consider a request from police today to allocate $2.3 million, in addition to the already-spent $2.9 million, to give the Ron Smith and Associates consulting firm more time to fix the lab.

Police officials are also mulling whether to extend the review of evidence to the 1990s in light of a recently uncovered misidentification of a suspect in 1996.
Decade of problems

As part of an investigation into problems at the lab last year, three employees were put on leave and one resigned. One of the employees on leave was later disciplined for destroying notes and retired this spring. Two others were cleared of wrongdoing.

But the problems, allowed to develop because of apparent neglect by police officials, go back at least a decade, documents show.

Starting around 2000, officials began failing to replace senior examiners who retired, according to an audit report by Ron Smith and Associates.

As experienced staffers left, overwhelmed employees faced an evidence backlog. Meanwhile, officials failed to update equipment or provide training opportunities.

"I can't remember how long it was since we sent some people out for training," said Chuck Sheldon, who retired as a fingerprint analyst in 2007. "It got to be that they didn't send anyone to school anymore."

By 2006, communication between supervisors and subordinates had all but ceased and equipment was falling apart.

Some gear had to be duct-taped to make work, and management and employees reported that "effective two-way communication doesn't exist," according to a 2006 report to prepare the unit for an accreditation inspection.

Little changed between then and the accreditation audit in 2008.

Case records were missing basic documents. There was almost no funding to train laboratory staff and communication was as bad as ever, the auditors wrote in their report.

The laboratory was "not in compliance at the time of inspection," assessors wrote.

Today, administrators struggle to explain how the lab got to that point.

Martha Montalvo, who was an executive assistant chief in charge of the lab from 2004 to 2008, said she did the best she could to manage the fingerprint unit while juggling other responsibilities. "We were trying to bring the lab up to a higher level, if you would. But in terms of issues, I never knew of serious issues," said Montalvo, who remains a top HPD administrator. "You've got to remember there was so much going on at the time with the property room, the crime lab, the red light cameras. I had so many things, and I was trying very, very hard."
Problems not addressed

The situation reached a crisis point last year when the technical errors were discovered.

But the most recent audits show vast problems have remained unaddressed including a dysfunctional workplace and poorly trained workers in some areas of the lab. Numerous safety concerns also cited include inaccurate procedures for handling hazardous waste and excessive amounts of flammable materials on site.

Mayor Annise Parker said continuing problems are "a source of extreme frustration."

Anger has also bubbled up from retired fingerprint analysts and the Houston Police Officers Union. They assert that employees have been wrongly blamed for the sins of command staff.

"There was complete ignorance of the issues at the top levels of the department. Instead of fixing the problems they allowed them to get worse," said Chad Hoffman, a police union attorney who represented the two employees who were put on leave but later cleared of wrongdoing.

"There was complete ignorance of the issues at the top levels of the department. Instead of fixing the problems they allowed them to get worse," said Chad Hoffman, a police union attorney who represented the two employees who were put on leave but later cleared of wrongdoing.

Oettmeier said police have treated employees as fairly as possible."

The story can be found at:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7074665.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith