US: Los Angeles Backtracks on Promise to Deliver Justice to Rape Victims

(Los Angeles, January 15, 2010) - The announcement today by city leaders that new crime lab positions approved in this year's budget will not be funded makes it impossible for the Los Angeles Police Department to eliminate its backlog of untested DNA in rape cases, Human Rights Watch said today.

The 26 new crime lab positions were approved by City Council in May 2009, despite a near hiring freeze, at the request of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The police maintained that the positions were necessary to address a backlog of 7,000 untested sets of physical evidence in rape cases, known as rape kits, and to develop a long-term solution for efficient and effective rape kit testing. For the first time since the positions were approved, the city acknowledged today that the positions have not been funded and will not be filled.

"This announcement undermines public trust in the city's commitment to eliminate the rape kit backlog and bring real justice to rape victims," said Sarah Tofte, US Program researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of a March 2009 report on the rape kit backlog in Los Angeles. "The city, through the budget process, promised to hire the crime lab personnel needed to test in a timely way every booked rape kit and to upload the test results into the DNA database. The city has broken its promise."

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/01/15/us-los-angeles-backtracks-promise-deliver-justice-rape-victims

Fuckers.
:kick: & R #5

:grr:

lab evidence for drug arrests looks like.
I'm just sayin'.