City takes steps to cut rape kit backlog

The City Council is beginning to take aim at the backlog of untested sexual assault evidence kits.

A bill adopted unanimously this week directs city executives to work with local colleges to create a scholarship program or other incentives that encourage students to train in forensic science — the specialty necessary to analyze the kits properly.

The resolution also establishes a team to monitor Albuquerque’s efforts toward addressing the backlog and calls for a study of whether the city is paying its forensic scientists enough, among other measures.

Sponsor Dan Lewis said it’s a practical way to start making progress on the terrible backlog.

“The number of untested sexual assault evidence kits is staggering,” he said, “and solving this problem is going to take more than one approach.”

State Auditor Tim Keller

this year estimated New Mexico’s backlog of untested evidence kits is the worst in the country on a per-capita basis. In each case, of course, the victim participated in a forensic examination by a nurse to collect DNA or other evidence that could help prosecute the offender.

Another council bill is also on tap.

Councilor Pat Davis is sponsoring a resolution that would establish a series of deadlines requiring Albuquerque police to send new kits to a laboratory and have them tested in criminal cases. His proposal is still under consideration by a council committee.

Soccer stadium study

The council is in the early stages — very early stages — of analyzing the feasibility of a 10,000-seat soccer stadium. On a 6-2 vote, they agreed to chip in $15,000 to study the best location for such a stadium and the economic impacts.

Lewis sponsored the bill. Pat Davis and Brad Winter voted against participating in the study, and Klarissa Peña was absent.

Trash station on pause

Mayor Richard Berry’s plan to build a trash transfer station in the North Valley may face a new challenge.

The council this week directed the administration to put the project on pause until an economic study is completed.

The bill, sponsored by Council President Isaac Benton, sets aside $25,000 for the analysis.

It won passage on a 7-1 vote, with Trudy Jones voting “no” and Peña absent.

The proposed transfer station — a place where garbage trucks would drop off their daily loads, and a larger truck would collect the material for transport to the West Side landfill — would be at Comanche and Edith.