HPD plans to destroy evidence from crime investigations
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston police property warehouse needs cleaning out, officials claim. Thousands of pounds of drugs, over 60,000 firearms, blood samples and countless pieces of evidence have been collected at crime scenes. Now city leaders say some of that evidence needs to be destroyed.
On Friday, Mayor John Whitmire, Police Chief Noe Diaz, and Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare all met at the police evidence store room to announce they will be destroying evidence.
We're told they'll only be destroying evidence that is no longer needed or useful to a case.
The issue is two-fold. They need to make room for the new evidence and the staffing it takes to run the facility is keeping police from being on the streets.
As the inventory is downsized, the Houston Forensic Science Center is working to transition the facility out of police control and under their control. This will release around 70 police officers to get back onto the street.
It's also a way to check the inventory they had. In October, rats were found chewing on drug evidence.
"We got 400,000 pounds of marijuana in storage, and the rats are the only ones enjoying it," Mayor Whitmire said.
"This is a problem for property rooms everywhere in the country. Rodents, bugs, fungus -- all kinds of things love drugs," Dr. Peter Stout, president of the Houston Forensic Science Center, said. "They've had professional exterminators involved, but this is difficult getting these rodents out of there. Think about it -- they're drug-addicted rats. They're tough to deal with."
The evidence that was destroyed by the rat was reportedly for a case that has already been adjudicated.
ABC13 Eyewitness News has been diligently reporting on the quarter million suspended incident reports that police have spent the past year re-opening and, in many cases, investigating for the very first time.
SEE ALSO: Houston Police Department releases long-awaited report on suspended cases scandal
Officials say they don't want to get rid of evidence that may be needed in the future. They tell us everything is documented to ensure they're only getting rid of what's absolutely no longer needed.
"The guarantee is that everything is tracked," Chief Diaz said. "We have notes that happened from a homicide that happened in 1947. Everything has a number, everything has been properly addressed. The team here now that is putting this together has stayed on top if it. We have modernized the facility; it's brand new, they're working on it but space continues to be an issue for us."
The police department first told us about the suspended cases in February 2024. During Friday's press conference, we asked for an update on the cases, but the chief wouldn't provide one.
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