La Police Commission Supports Plea For More Cold Case Officers, Lab Staff
Worried that 46 percent of homicides and 80 percent of rapes in Los Angeles have not brought about prosecutions, the Police Commission approved on April 25 a request to double the Police Department’s cold case homicide unit’s size, establish a new cold case sexual assault unit, and heighten the number of crime lab employees. The panel consented to pursue money for 31 detectives, fingerprint, and bloodwork specialists, and DNA experts in expectation of obtaining, on average, a lead per day from an evolving California criminal database.
The cold case homicide unit is made up of seven detectives working on 6,000 unsolved homicide cases that have fingerprint, DNA, or ballistics proof that has not been completely processed through new search systems. There are 80 cases under active investigation, including four involving serial murderers with 18 victims overall, Police Chief William J. Bratton announced.
The commission voted to ask the mayor and City Council to offer money for nine more cold case detectives and to add a clerk and a lieutenant. In addition, the panel backed making a new cold case sexual assault unit, to which eight detectives would be assigned.
The commission supported, as well, Bratton’s request for a half-dozen new fingerprint experts and eight serology criminalists to help the code case units.
The overall tab for the new employees would amount to almost $3 million and would mandate approval by the City Council and the mayor.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Los Angeles Times (04/26/06) P. B4; McGreevy, Patrick .
