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For the second year in a row, City Controller Annise Parker is urging Mayor Bill White to make the Houston Police Department crime lab an independent department in his new budget.

"I continue to believe that separation, entirely, from the police department is the only way to achieve the layer of independence the crime lab needs to function effectively and efficiently,” the controller said, noting that the mayor required HPD to present the crime lab budget as a stand-alone segment of the police budget last year.

Once the department is established, Parker recommends that a new stakeholders committee discuss creating an independent regional crime lab to serve the city, county and surrounding communities. That idea has already drawn support from the mayor, HPD Chief Harold Hurtt, District Attorney Pat Lykos, County Judge Ed Emmett and several Houston City Council members, including Jolanda Jones.

The controller served on the 2007 stakeholders committee that reviewed the scandalous Houston crime lab. She believes that investigation’s conclusion — that serious lab problems began because the lab was not an HPD priority — supports the need for a truly independent crime lab.

Last month, the controller highlighted a landmark national forensics study done by the National Academy of Sciences that included sweeping recommendations for improving forensics. One of those urged the establishment of independent crime labs and offered suggestions for making them truly independent, such as blind testing, or regularly sending one lab’s forensic evidence to another lab to keep labs honest. (right: CSI's Gil Grissom)

Another forensics expert recommends:

• Forensic experts should not serve in the same bureaucracy as police or prosecutors. Ideally, they should report to judges.
• Evidence handlers should shepherd evidence between law enforcement and crime labs without conveying any information about where or how evidence was obtained.
• Forensic experts should not talk to police or prosecutors before conducting tests. Studies show theories about crime can bias results.

"An independent crime lab that produces scientific, unbiased results is not a pipedream," the controller concluded. "It’s urgently needed to repair one of the cornerstones of our criminal justice system and restore public confidence. Police deserve a first-class weapon in the fight against crime. The public deserves a first-class crime lab in the fight for equal justice."

BARC may be turning the corner

The all-day Houston seminar of Nathan Winograd, father of the "no-kill" animal shelter movement, is the latest sign that the city's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care (BARC) may be finally turning the corner toward becoming a more humane shelter dedicated to far more adoptions and far fewer euthanized animals.

A no-kill shelter tries extremely hard to find homes for all healthy, treatable and non-vicious animals, normally about 90% of animals. A true no-kill shelter, like San Francisco SPCA and Tompkins Co., NY, SPCA —- where Winograd served —- actually achieve the goal. Others, like Reno and Charlottesville, VA, are fast approaching.

Health Department Director Stephen Williams, who attended the seminar along with many BARC and Health Department staffers, says he "is committed to work toward lowering our euthanasia rate, increasing adoptions and expanding opportunities for low/no-cost spay and neuters."

Winograd has been hired to assess BARC. Many expect his report will be highly critical of the city's high euthanasia rates and practices that have prompted ongoing controversy and public outcry. His often confrontational style and methods, such as unsuccessfully suing cities that don't change fast enough and emotional public appeals, may impact his BARC assessment and the city's response. His presence, however, leaves no doubt that the city is willing to take a hard look at the issue.
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    City plays role in saving historic cemetery

Many Houstonians may not be aware of the historic eight-acre cemetery hidden behind industrial warehouses northwest of downtown near Washington and Studemont.

Since incorporating in 1875, 10 years after the close of the Civil War, Olivewood Cemetery has fallen victim to extreme neglect and vandals. Thick vegetation still covers three quarters of the 444 family plots. The city's oldest African-American burial ground, at 1300 Court, contains the graves of prominent Houston African-Americans, including a 100-plus-year-old woman who came to the U.S. on a slave ship in the late 1770s but lived until 1891, long enough to see slavery end. Many volunteers are still needed to fully restore the grounds and uncover more graves.

Like many old cemeteries, the owners and heirs are dead, leaving care to descendants. Legally, such abandoned cemeteries belong to the state. A district court judge ruled recently that The Descendants of Olivewood (www.DescendantsofOlivewood.org), formed in 2003, can maintain and improve the site. City Controller Annise Parker volunteered her office as fiscal agent. Half of all donations must be placed in a trust fund overseen by her office.

"The city is proud to lend a hand in saving this historic cemetery and welcomes the opportunity to play a role in saving more abandoned cemeteries. They are an important part of our history," the city controller said.

A large crowd gathered April 4 to unveil a state historical marker. Elected officials attending the dedication included Mayor Bill White, the city controller and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.