City Council puts off decision on rape kits

Mayor’s Office, APD don’t have report on cost of plan to test kits within three months

City councilors delayed voting on a resolution Wednesday evening that would require police to test rape kits within three months after receiving them.

The council unanimously agreed to defer the issue to the March 6 meeting, after the Mayor’s Office and the Albuquerque Police Department said they had not yet prepared a report on the costs of implementing the resolution.

Councilor Pat Davis, the resolution’s sponsor, told the Journal he was “frustrated and disappointed” that the vote was unable to move forward.

“We spent a great deal of time at (meetings of the council’s Finance and Government Operations Committee) hashing out everybody’s concerns,” said Davis. “They didn’t do the research despite knowing that this was on the calendar.”

In a statement, Rob Perry, the top executive under Mayor Richard Berry, said the Mayor’s Office would “continue to secure the appropriate financial resources and develop a

long term and comprehensive plan that will assure the victims and the community that each (sexual assault) case is thoroughly and carefully examined.”

APD did not respond to a request for comment.

New Mexico has the highest number of untested rape kits per capita in the nation, according to an investigation by the state auditor. Of the 5,302 untested rape kits counted in November, more than 3,940 were collected during investigations in the Albuquerque metropolitan area. The Mayor’s Office and APD have argued that the city’s crime lab does not have the resources to test new kits within a three-month period, let alone quickly work through the backlog.

APD Commander Jeff McDonald, who oversees scientific evidence for the department, told the council a 90-day rule would likely require at least $200,000 to cover salaries for three new DNA analysts and a lab technician.

But Perry called those numbers “premature” and said more time was needed to perform a full analysis.

“I think we’re putting the cart before the horse,” Perry said. “To put a plan out there that says 90 days is great, but it’s dependent on so many things.”

Davis also asked Perry and McDonald to come to the March 6 meeting with language for an amendment to the resolution. The “implementation trigger” would clarify that the 90-day rule would not go into effect until the crime lab was appropriately staffed and funded.

“This is one of those promises we can’t afford not to keep,” Davis said at the meeting.