HOUSTON – Pop-Off Politics is the only segment in Houston where we look through all the agenda items and tell you what they are and how much they cost.
City Council Members and the Mayor are tasked with allocating millions of dollars each week they are in session aimed to better Houstonian’s lives.
This week, KPRC 2 Senior Investigates Producer Jason Nguyen joined Zach Lashway while Mario Diaz was on assignment.
Real-Time Crime Center at HPD
The first agenda item explored this week deals with a Real Time Crime Center at the Houston Police Department (HPD). Back in October, we first told you about the Versaterm Public Safety System, which is the new records-keeping system HPD is trying to get operational by March of 2025.
The system will allow them to streamline crime trend analysis and report tracking.
Now, HPD wants a Real Time Crime Center through Motorola Solutions. There is not much information under Agenda Item #38 other than indicating it’s a placeholder.
HPD is looking for a council vote on Wednesday, assuming the item doesn’t get pulled before then.
Houston Forensic Science Center
The next agenda item deals with the Houston Forensic Science Center (HFSC).
KPRC 2 Investigates first told you about the technician who was terminated because of questions dealing with the quality of her work that affected more than 390 criminal cases. That came at a time when HFSC was dealing with several backlogs.
One of those backlogs deals with toxicology reports. This mostly deals with blood draws for those driving under the influence.
In Agenda Item #36, HFSC is asking the city council to maximize its American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA funding.
We’re told the center wants to use more than $133,000 to outsource the toxicology tests to NMS Labs. That money would go towards testing 100-150 toxicology tests.
While that doesn’t seem like a lot, in the grand scheme of things, it lightens the workload so that the lab techs who are working on those suspended cases can get them completed as soon as possible along with the rest of the backlog.
Have Questions?
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If you have questions on how the City of Houston is spending your hard-earned tax dollars, email Mario Diaz at mdiaz@kprc.com, or email the investigates team at investigates@kprc.com.