unanimity on this. at this time if there are no members of the public that wish to speak, public comment disclosed. colleagues, let me ask you, can remove this item with amendments to the full award? without objection, that is the case. item number three? >> item number three, i believe that this has to go to the board as a committee report. let me -- supervisor chiu: of the mistake that, without objection, that is the case. -- item #3. >> item #3. ordinance implementing the california "sexual assault victims' bill of rights" by amending the san francisco administrative code to: (1) add section 2a.89 to require the police department to develop and implement procedures to collect and test dna samples in sexual assault cases and provide information and notices to victims, require the mayor to report on dna collection and testing performance as part of the budget submission, and make it the policy of the city and

county of san francisco to appropriate sufficient funds each fiscal year to ensure timely testing of dna evidence in sexual assault cases; and (2) add section 10.100-172 to establish the police dna testing in sexual assault cases account. supervisor chiu: thank you. this item was brought to us by our colleague. i understand that she is on her way. we have a representative from the san francisco police department with us. while you starred in we expect her any moment. let's thank you. i will defer to the supervisor who brought this forward.

supervisor alioto-pier: thank you. thank you, colleagues. members of the committee, thank you. this item today, we will push standards in the administrative code to have the city test evidence in sexual assault cases with dna. the collection of a rape kit within 42 hours, testing within 14 days. much focus has been on the crime lab. during these discussions it is my priority to make sure that the crimes disproportionately affecting women are treated with the respect they deserve. in sexual assault cases officers

must not only collect evidence of the crime scene, but also from health-care providers. usually a hospital emergency room. when the rape kit is picked up and how quickly it is tested makes all of this -- all of the difference. one of the issues i wanted to quickly address is the cost. i believe that this legislation can be implemented at no cost. we have a minimum staffing for police officers that can retrieve the samples. more was at of four additional dna testing with the goal of testing every sample. offering new dna testing accounts similar to the budget measuring process, the use of funds, and whether or not they are combining with projected. one more cleanup amendment on

page 3, 15. rather than having the male role of court, it would be changed to the police department so that it would have the information on the first step of the process. i want to say that it was a mistake to think that because the budget analysts -- sorry, because the mayor's budget office would be submitting his budget, we thought it was inappropriate place to have the mayor's office report. looking into it further, it probably is not. we are joined by the assistant chief. we can discuss the operational impact to the department and the appointee to the police commissioner. jim hammer is also here. he brought this issue to our attention. one more fact that i would like to bring up is that in new york city, where they started processing these kits quickly in alignment with what we are

suggesting, they sought an increase in convictions. something that has been proven to work and something that is in my opinion important to the city and county of san francisco and as elected officials is our responsibility to ensure the safety and health of the people that live in the city and county. with that, if i could do that, having the chief take the podium once more. >> thank you, i appreciate that. i wanted to say that to start this is a great undertaking. law enforcement, dna analysis is a vital tool and as a city we need to find a way to support the up loading. with respect to these crimes we have to find ways to streamline the procedures up loaded into the statewide data base, identifying suspects as quickly as possible.

we are using dna collection as evidence with wall enforcement in general, collecting far more samples than we ever have. we are training more of the line officers to collect it. still using experts to collect it. in our department we are about to launch a civilian first responder crime scene tech physician who will have as a part of their function, collecting this evidence. not in briefcases, but in others. coming the issue of case management, so essential to make sure that you are getting the best use of your crime laboratory to efficiently move evidence forward. something that we have worked very hard on. especially with the commander. it is a partnership between

investigations and the crime lab. so that we are looking at each case individually and making sure the most probative evidence and the most probable evidence for giving us a good sample is being looked at as quickly as possible. rate kits are the most valuable piece of evidence often in these cases. with respect to the ordinance itself and of the first portion, the rape kit collection, you should know that we support this 70 to our collection process and have instituted a program some time ago to make sure that we were collecting these kits from the provider within 72 hours. since the institution we have been able to meet that target in get these symbols with other evidence. they can be limited to the exam, or limited to other evidence as well. we are meeting the first portion

of the ordinance before we start. with respect to the up loading within four -- 14 days, we are in the initial stages and had been able to analyze and identify profiles in several of these. the steps that will have to be looked at is the technical review and of loading it to make sure that we can hit the 14 denmark so that we are meeting goals on the ordinance where we have to concentrate our focus and energy. with respect to the ordinance going on, it begins to discuss setting time goals for other evidence and other dna evidence in rape cases. i know that will take a lot of effort and energy on the part of the department. look at balancing the cases and priorities that we have. including burglary cases, from which we can also get good dna with samples of loaded quickly,

giving us a way to close down. most criminals are not focusing on one crime only what are doing multiple crimes across the spectrum. we are trying to move the best evidence for were across the most cases at any given time. the only point that i see on this that i want to make clear that the department does not want to see happen, this is a very forward-looking way to make sure that funding continues without looking at funding for a laboratory and criminals, that we are not already taking existing funds from the existing budgets this was they department

priority, obligations as well as other victims. we need to not directed all towards one type of crime at the laboratory. supervisor chiu: supervisor? supervisor alioto-pier: i was calling to thank the chief and ask if there were any questions. >> thank you. supervisor alioto-pier: commissioner hammer? >> thank you, supervisors. good morning. if i could just briefly put this in context, one of the issues that came to my attention was the problem of dna backlog. spending most of my career as a prosecutor, i know that speed the testing of dna and telling victims that speedy results can help the victim to come forward with conviction, in my meetings

with community members six months ago the people that work in the field told me that they would tell rape victims, but it would ask when it would get the test back, to not expect speedy results. i almost fell off my chair. they said the practice of the department -- not well, but until some time ago, was to get those samples once every week. and because the backlog had been so bad they had to tell victims not to expect speedy results. you can imagine the response of victims. they do not want to cooperate in a prosecution. the facts on the ground until recently were those. i have worked with steve schmidt and tremendous progress has been made by the apartment in the dna laboratory. these problems are real and they cost lives. one example that was well reported, march of 2007, just a

couple of years ago, rudi [unintelligible] was raped and murdered in san francisco. samples were taken from the crime scene. they sat for two years at the crime lab. during those years her killer and rapists continue to rape women in san francisco. if those samples had been tested within a few weeks or even a month, we would have gotten a hit because circular and rapists had spent time in prison for fleshing. his dna was collected as a part of his 2001 imprisonment. we could quickly apprehended him and those women would not have been raped. i think that other jurisdictions around the country are adopting these sorts of claims. thank you all for your attention to this. supervisor alioto-pier: thank you, commissioner. supervisor chiu: let's open it

up to public comment. are there any members of the public that wish to speak on this item? seeing no one, public comment is closed. final comments? supervisor alioto-pier: not as an official member of the committee, i cannot make a motion, but i do have an amendment, if we could pass the amendment. i would just like to thank you for your time. one thing that i do want to say is that we obviously talking about crimes that disproportionately affect women. not 100%, but disproportionately. from the experience i have had within my own community, this is on the forefront of women's minds. showing the people that perpetuate sexual assault are caught, imprisoned, and obviously convicted.

i ask and hope for your support today. supervisor chiu: can i ask for the articulation on the specific amendment? >> thank you very much. after conferring with supervisor alioto-pier i wanted to read the precise language. page three, lines 4 through 6, subsection , it shall now read a "accompanying the mayor's budget submission and continuing, the police department shall report on its performance in meeting the goals established by this section. supervisor chiu: could we have a motion? without of it -- without objection, the amendment shall be made. i understand that that is non- substantive. with that, if this item could be moved to the full board with recommendation? something for us to consider tomorrow. without objection, it is the

case. madam clerk, item number four. wax item number four, -- >> item #4. ordinance authorizing the san francisco police department, on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, to retroactively accept and expend grant funds in the amount of $424,107 from the united states department of justice/national institute of justice "solving cold cases with dna" grant program; and amending ordinance no. 191-10 (annual salary ordinance, fy2010-2011) to reflect the addition of three (3) part-time positions (1.50 fte total) in job classification q4 police officer iii in the san francisco police department. supervisor chiu: thank you, madam clerk. this is an acceptable spend grant regarding grant money from doj and we have a representative from the police department to explain. >> this is very timely based on

the topic of dna. i will give you a brief background to let you know what this project entails. the background is that there was a grant applied on march 11, 2010. by then the commander and national institute of justice award, the san francisco police department has 1151 unsolved homicides over the last 25 years and 900 reported but unsold rates over the past 10 years. there is a 10 year statute of limitations for rape cases. meaning that we would look at cases from 2001 through the present. during the two years from 2007 to 2009, 70% of the department investigating homicides or sexual assaults and as a result

the district attorney's office was able to charge 33% of sexual assaults in and 60% of the homicides. the police department is very interested in obtaining resources to focus on cold cases to go after perpetrators before they can offend again and not without the funding to hire three part-time experienced investigators with testing lab services and training and travel and we currently have four investigators. this project will enhance our knowledge base through cold case training, assisting the department in developing strategies for resolution of

violence, sexual assault cases. many of the cold cases will be examined and 100 selected for further review. evidence will be submitted for the laboratory and a possible bulk loaded into our combined dna index system. the police department crime lab does not have sufficient resources to investigate the backlog and in some cases will be tread -- contracted out. as we have been doing this year to eliminate the backlog. the crime lab also has as it -- evidence wearing nine-marker dna profile was developed. we are going to look at our dna and retrieve evidence that 13 marker profiles to be developed from. criminal cases where no suspect has developed biological evidence can be retrieved through dna typing where criminals search for evidence against the database.

the department will review investigative results to actively pursue leads, interview witnesses, working with staff to pursue resolution. this is not only good for the police department, but great for the city and county. we competed nationally for this grant and it was awarded. as a result we will be able to work to solve many of the cases and increase public safety in the city. at this time i will take any questions. supervisor elsbernd: just a quick budget question. these are new positions, not money being used to replenish the general fund or anything like that? >> this is new money, $424,000. supervisor elsbernd: this money was not on the revenue side back in july? it was unexpected? >> i am getting the fiscal

director saying no. we were not anticipating this at all. supervisor chiu: these folks will be on staff under this grant for how long? >> 18 months, if i am not mistaken. of course, low. supervisor chiu: -- of course, we will. supervisor chiu: thank you, cmdr. are there any members of the public that wish to speak on this item? >> supervisors, my name is san francisco [inaudible] whenever we get grants and they are applied directly to maintain standards, the consider and of san francisco is appreciated. what we would like to see in the

southeast sector is empirical data on those that commit crimes linked to our children. and i know that this grant does not specifically address that, but it does address cold cases. another thing that i am willing to state to the command group that is under growing -- undergoing and other changes, is that we need to have very high standards to make up for what has been going on at the crime lab. i do not know how you or the supervisors, the future mayor, think about the crime lab. i and my subjective opinion, we

need to move. any laboratories that are at hunters point, that toxic cesspool over there, it needs to be moved away. if we want to have something built at mission bay, we need a time line so that all of these future grants and standards can be resolved. supervisor chiu: any other members of the public? seeing no one, public comment is closed. can this be moved to the full board? without objection, that is the case. madam clerk, any more business before the committee? >> no, mr. chairman. supervisor chiu: thank you, this meeting is adjourned at this time.

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