We now know that the Los Angeles Police Department's crime lab is a virtually perfect engine of injustice.
As The Times reported last week, an internal report on the fingerprint unit turned up at least two instances in which shoddy work led to the prosecution of innocent people. Then, on Monday, City Controller Laura Chick released an audit showing that the lab's understaffed and underfunded DNA unit has allowed at least 7,000 sexual assault test kits to go unopened. In at least 217 of those cases -- nobody is sure of the precise number -- the kits have been left to sit for so long that the 10-year statute of limitations has expired, so those assailants cannot be prosecuted.
So, to put the matter plainly: This city has a forensic science division whose incompetence ensnares the innocent, while its mismanagement allows the guilty to go free.
Given what we know about the conduct of sexual predators, it seems reasonable to assume that this situation lets criminals stay on the street to commit other assaults. Gail Abarbanel directs the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center, which conducts the examinations that go into the assault kits. "Every unopened rape kit means there may be a dangerous offender loose on the street," she said Tuesday. "Three new victims came in here yesterday, and you have to wonder whether any of them would have been raped if all those kits had been opened."
So, having made a reasonable summary of the evidence and heard a reasonable appraisal of its significance, let's ask the reasonable question: Who's responsible?
The answer is that the mayor, police chief and City Council majority are equally complicit.
Let's start at the top. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was silent last week on the fingerprint issue, and so far he has had nothing to say on the abominable backlog in the DNA unit. When Villaraigosa runs for reelection next year, he'll be sure to tout how he collaborated with Police Chief Bill Bratton to improve public safety. If Bratton had gone before the microphones Monday to announce that the LAPD had cleared every rape kit in its backlog, the mayor would have been beside him to share the applause. The 7,000 women and children -- half the victims of sexual assault are under 18 -- at least have the right to expect the mayor to show up when the news is not good.
