The news that Houston Police Department has a DNA backlog is not surprising at all. In fact it should be expected, considering it was closed down for a significant period of time.
Seven years after the Houston Police Department crime lab scandal first broke, city officials acknowledged this week that nearly 4,000 rape kits and other crime evidence remain untested for DNA.
What is more interesting about this article is the following comment from one of the online readers:
dnatruth wrote:
HPD DNA lab will not be able to attract qualified analysts after what they have done to two best analysts last year in the name of proficiency testing investigation. Essentially, working at HPD DNA lab is a death spell to a bright professional career and this is common knowledge in forensic DNA community. One of the analysts who was mistreated moved on to an even significantly more challenging position. Hence HPD DNA lab is not only a disaster for the public but also to analysts who really are committed to their work. Almost everyone there wants to be a manager and not do the grunt work. Best wishes for the upcoming regional lab
Hopefully the lab isn’t being unduly hard on the new employees of the Houston Police Department. Certainly they should be treated with the same respect and given the same fair treatment as other qualified DNA analysts across the country.
Read the whole story about the Houston PD DNA backlog.
