Houston police seize drugs and weapons daily, and all of that has to be tested for court.
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Right now, the center has 2,207 pending seized drugs requests, up 38% from October, according to its data. There are 350 firearm examinations backlogged with the center, up 15% from October when there were 300 guns awaiting analysis.
"We have been slowly losing ground on firearms for months, and we've been talking about that for at least a couple of years because we've seen this coming. As the courts come back online after COVID-19, they're driving requests to us," Dr. Peter Stout, president of the Houston Forensic Science Center, said.
Stout said he lost one of his five drug analysts since 13 Investigates last interviewed him in September.
"To lose one analyst, that's 20% of our capacity right there in one person," he said.
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But, he said finding qualified staff for open drug and firearms analyst positions takes time due to the years of on-the-job training needed.
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Stout said the center has seven active firearms examiners with another five in training. But, the training is extensive, which means those individuals won't be ready to actually start examining on their own until later this year or next year.
He said that's because the training requires analysts to not only know the science behind the analysis they're doing but also be able to present it in a high-pressure, adversarial environment when testifying in court.
"That's a pretty high-order task, and if something screws up, well, the consequences are pretty catastrophic, so you've got to take your time training them to make sure that it works at the other end," Stout said. "Backlogs in labs is a consistent problem. Once you get a backlog, it's not like there's a whole lot of excess capacity, so to actually carve away at a backlog can take a really long time."
On Wednesday, newly-elected Houston Mayor John Whitmire made it clear he wants to break through the backlog that extends beyond just the science center.
Even years after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and the first case of COVID-19 in 2020, there are still more than 32,547 criminal cases waiting to be tried, according to the Harris County District Courts data.
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"Criminal justice is a system. If any part of it is broken, it doesn't work, and quite frankly, as I stand before you today, we have several elements of the criminal justice system that's not working, certainly dealing with the backlog. We have to process folks that have been charged with serious violent offenses," Whitmire said on Wednesday. "What I and council can influence is our departments, and we're going to do the very best we can."
SEE ALSO: Harris County forensic lab receives federal grant for massive upgrade in effort to combat backlogs
Stout said that even if his department is fully staffed and well-funded, the criminal justice backlog will remain until there are more prosecutors and courts.
"I am familiar with the challenges at the Houston Forensic Science Center, and I am in the process of reviewing the operations there and in other areas of the City," Whitmire said this week.
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