Photo by dimsumdarren via Flickr Following the shocking news, media pressure and community outrage of the 7,000 untested rape-kits sitting on LAPD shelves, the LAPD along with Mayor Villaraigosa and City Attorney hopeful Jack Weiss announced a plan to catch up on the DNA testing of rape-kits. Basically, political will and funding will be directed towards the crime lab. "The plan calls for the addition of ten criminalists every six months until the LAPD......

Photo by DimsumDarren via Flickr Although everyone can agree that it's unacceptable to have a backlog of 7,000 rape-kits over at the LAPD, the reality is resources, as in money. Who is to blame? Well, the politicians are at odds over that one, though in the end, there are a lot of factors from councilmembers, past and present, mayors and the LAPD. In the meantime, the Daily News looks into the sometimes long process......

Yesterday was a cathartic day for LAPD's top dog, Chief William Bratton. In the same press conference where he admitted that the department's backlog of 7,000 rape-kits is a problem, he also spoke about the leaked-to-the-press report about shoddy fingerprint analyses that led to wrong accusations. Bratton, who emphasized that no case is solely based on fingerprints, has now convened a group of experts to form a taskforce on the issue in addition to moving......

In response to City Controller Laura Chick's report on the LAPD's backlog of 7,000 untested rape-kits--over 200 of which are already past the statute of limitations--Chief William Bratton admitted the issue as a “tremendously important problem," at a press conference yesterday evening. Although Chick calls for fixing the problem in three years like New York City did when it had a backlog of 17,000 kits, Bratton's plan will clear the backup to zero by 2013.........

Nearly 7,000 rape-kits sit on LAPD freezer shelves awaiting testing with at least 217 of those past the statute of limitations, rendering them useless even if a rapist is identified by the DNA collected. "It is beyond disturbing that the thousands of victims who have undergone the invasive ordeal of these 4-6 hour tests do not even know that their evidence is still untested" wrote City Controller Laura Chick in an audit of the police......

Photo by discarted via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Two big news conferences are scheduled for Monday to present reports on the LAPD and not necessarily in a good light. First, at 11:00 a.m. on the steps of City Hall, City Controller Laura Chick will present her audit on the backlog of Forensic DNA rape-kits. It has been reported that their backlog is around 7,000 kits. That's thousands of chances to gather physical evidence......

One of those pesky quality of life complaints we hear a lot about are people who don't clean up after their dog. And trying to get the city to enforce a repeat violator is pretty hard too. You've got to catch the person in the act on film or photo, follow them to their home address or somehow obtain where they live, write a letter to the Department of Animal Services with the evidence......