i am confident that we can continue to oversee the crime lab. frankly we are having a wait- and-see attitude as to how much funding below get in terms of outsourcing the backlog and getting back to the fresh source. >> went -- supervisor mirkarimi: when we sponsor this study suggesting that municipal crime labs go independent, their response thus was that this was not a loan, by the way, that it was simply suggested, they are having major problems with their crime labs. saying that overwhelmingly those problems are that they find a pattern where they are under the governance of law enforcement. it could be the sheriff's department in one area, the police department in another. that was their answer to us. i was curious why it was there were moving the question of independence. that was the short answer. what would you say to that? >> we had a significant backlog in los angeles as far as dna was concerned. at the end of the day is simply supervision, that is where we saw the issues. frankly, i think that for me it is about supervision and account

you would probably have to be looking at the one lab that could take up the work being a private lab in the area. they charge per specimen and for our. -- per ouhour. supervisor mirkarimi: 4000 cases each year based on the new model, with 50 going to trial, that would be the new number to look at. do you think of that is realistic? >> this program has not been in place long enough to have a good decision made based on it. making a long-term decision to shut down a public service that every other city and county in the nation does based on a program that arose out of the scandal is really a quick jump to judgment. supervisor mirkarimi: your union represents many of the criminals. do you have any opinion on the question of whether we should go as attended when it regards the national academy of science report? >> actually, we have no opinion yet. we are interested in coming up with the best model that meets the scientific needs and public safety needs of san francisco. there should be some kind of task force or consortium working on that. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you, ms. carter. i

again, the structure of the lab and the running of the lab, we have partially discussed that. it is fine to get it out there. i am only concerned about any public disclosure at this time that may compromise the prosecution, and it is important of a closed session discussion first. commissioner hammer: great, thank you chief. president marshall: madam city attorney, we have to put that on the agenda? ok. all right. thank you. >> we will look at a couple weeks out? commissioner hammer: sometimes we do a closed session, pending the outlook of the criminal. once that happens, the chief can report on that as much as he can after that, taking names out, so the public understand what was undertaken. >> very good, great. emmett is it two weeks from now, three weeks from now? -- >> is it two weeks from now, three weeks from now? >>

for a new crime lab? you say that that should basically be put on the shelf. >> i do not think that we are saying that we necessarily say that, it would be up to the mayor's office to make that decision whether or not the crime lab should stay in house or under the visibility of building the function. however, from the information and model that we had estimated, given the current circumstances of not having it on as an option, that it to the general fund would be significant enough to warrant general outsourcing. supervisor mirkarimi: in the controller's report by saw no reference to the best practices or question particularly with the national academy of sciences. >> we did look a lot at the resources in which we focus, which were a local crime labs and seeing what they were like in california. we did not have any information as best practices in california. supervisor mirkarimi: in california, some of those are not under pd, they are under the district attorney. there are slightly different government

the lieutenant and officers are assigned to the lab are in the process of contacting various labs to try to ascertain best practices, how we can do better trying to identify how not to have backlogs and to try to find out what are the best ratio of catalyst to caseload ratio to avoid backlogs and what ideal personnel ratios should be. so, questions? >> i have a few. we spent two hours at the lab. i thank you for your work. i think we have made a lot of progress today in terms of identifying exactly how big the problem is and some quick solutions to it. just for the sake of my fellow commissioners, we had heard the number 100 sexual assault cases pending. the good news is it may be somewhat less than that. i think rather than putting out new numbers, we want to make sure what those numbers are. we have identified from that subset of strangers sexual assaults, the most important with the greatest rate of recidivism and new victims being victimized. plus, the chances of getting hit with codis, that once samples are obtained in dna profiles are provided that we catch the perpetrator. i t

again, the structure of the lab and the running of the lab, we have partially discussed that. it is fine to get it out there. i am only concerned about any public disclosure at this time that may compromise the prosecution, and it is important of a closed session discussion first. commissioner hammer: great, thank you chief. president marshall: madam city attorney, we have to put that on the agenda? ok. all right. th

for a new crime lab? you say that that should basically be put on the shelf. >> i do not think that we are saying that we necessarily say that, it would be up to the mayor's office to make that decision whether or not the crime lab should stay in house or under the visibility of building the function. however, from the information and model that we had estimated, given the current circumstances of not having it on as an option, that it to the general fund would be significant enough to warrant general outsourcing. supervisor mirkarimi: in the controller's report by saw no reference to the best practices or question particularly with

we could apply these in the consideration of what our crime lab would look like. we are not suggesting that the police department be linked through the enforcement. we would need them, quite practically speaking, they would be the law enforcement connection for i.t. purposes on the data base management, the system requiring law-enforcement interface so that it would be run on the routine basis required. when we look at the prospects of where the crime lab might be going, it is not going to trends where the national academy of sciences are suggesting, contemplating a different direction. i am happy to see the assistant chief, who just walked in. i was just leading up to your entree. appreciate your presence. >> i apologize for being tardy. your fine supervisor mirkarimi: -- supervisor mirkarimi: you are fine. the future of the crime lab, we have heard thoroughly what they are and they make a lot of sense. we have concluded up over last term, not long after we began the shift, different folks taking over temporarily the crime lab. the question it begs is what happen

we could apply these in the consideration of what our crime lab would look like. we are not suggesting that the police department be linked through the enforcement. we would need them, quite practically speaking, they would be the law enforcement be the law enforcement connection for i.t. purposes o

we had a very thorough hearing on the implosion at the crime lab several months ago. obviously this is painful and embarrassing to the city of san francisco with regards to the hundreds, if not thousands of cases that may have been compromised due to the malfeasance and what sounds like criminal neglect of one technician that has caused grave consequences about the integrity and in their ability of the crime lab. we have heard from the police department about how they would like to restore that credibility by using an outsourcing procedure funded in the proposal before us. what we see as part of this question of the future crime lab, as torturous as a conversation as this has been in the press, it prompts an opportunity to ask what is the crime lab of the future in san francisco? we have heard from a number of experts in the last hearing. some are with us again today, showing that there is a direction in the united states where municipal crime labs are now moving towards independence. there was a report that came out strengthening forensic science in the united states

we know we need to make some improvements to the crime lab. there is not a human being in this room that does not recognize that. this year's budget includes $5.9 million in enhancements to the baseline funding in the crime lab. working with the district attorney, working closely with the public defender and others. we have to prioritize the following. eight additional new staff for public defenders to make sure they are doing everything they can and have the resources to update and reorganize that. $2.6 million to eliminate the backlog for controlled substances, focusing on the backlog end outsourcing. i want to get this done. this needs to get done. she is fighting for this top priority in the budget. we do the same thing. we make enhancements, and we fund the backlogs. we put $2 million at the crime lab. things large and small. there are substantial enhancements there. resources will not be our excuse for not modernizing the crime lab. i want to thank you every but a for working together -- everybody for working together to make this a worl

we learned there was a lab technician stealing drugs from the lab. this was going on apparently for some time. we do not know exactly how long, but what was alarming is ahead of the narcotics unit in november told the supervisors with in that office that there was a problem with this witness, that his witness was unreliable, and yet criminal investigation open until february. likewise, she called police and said she had found vials' that appeared to be from the crime lab of cocaine, and again, nothing was done, even though the police did look into it. there was a recommendation that there be a criminal investigation, and then nothing happened for several months. starting with you, john, how could this happen? how does it happen? when we talk about ordinary in justice, we have a situation here where an entire office of prosecutors did not run record checks on police officer witnesses. as many as 130 so they have no convictions -- sure they have convictions. it is required they expose this information. we do not have access to it. we can file a motion,

this would have not occurred if the lab was independent. i question whether it would even have the courage to come up and openly say what went wrong. there are crimes going on around the country. this is a fast-moving industry. the police agency is one of the two agencies that on our own we blew the doors open and expose their own problems. this is not the problem with investigative reporting for anyone anywhere else. this is a sad moment for policing in the region. plus it -- public safety is so intertwined that a reduction in public safety resources will have an impact on san francisco. we were together very closely. it is closely monitored. during the post -- event, many were sent to open. the mayor said that it will put together a budget and i believe this was approved. we're hopeful that the process will be okay for us. >> it is important to understand the point. there is no divorce, we are all in this together. look at the crime statistics in the last couple of years. i've seen more crime scenes and anyone should in a lifetime. and ma

tonight, we visit the closely guarded lab -- yes, diaper lab -- where scientists, engineers and seamstresses work to create the perfect nappy. >>> and stepping up -- he's a star in limbo. the gray area between tween heartthrob and full-on sex symbol. tonight, we go on the town with zac efron as he attempts to go through hollywood's sometimes treacherous waters. >>> good evening, i'm terry mor mor moron. it's the biggest leak in u.s. military history. 92,000 classified documents published on the website wikileaks. it paints a picture of a war gone wrong in afghanistan. details corruption in the afghan government and pakistani support for the enemy. most alarmingly, they contend what critics claim is evidence of possible war crimes by u.s. soldiers. well, we sat down with the man behind the leak, julian sanoge is his name. to try to find out why he did it. jim sciutto has the story. >> reporter: its mission is taking on the powerful and seemingly untouchable and exposing their biggest secrets. so when we sat down in london today with wikileaks founder and asked him what drives him, his answer

false positives or false negative common ---, and when you are talking about the integrity of a crime lab that is in charge of deciding who is guilty and not give states and the process is flawed, you cannot trust anything that comes out of the lab. we had a dna sample that came out in september where the dna of two technicians found in the sample that was tested, and the irony is we had made a number of challenges to the crime lab requesting an audit in november the showed they lost their accreditation, and we had to go to court because they would not turn it over, and the judges were telling us, you are making a mountain out of a molehill. little did we know there was all this bubbling underneath, so it is true the onus of the burden is on the defense, because once we have the information we have to file the motion. it is a tremendous amount of work we have to do, but what we need to do is make sure there is a process so people who were convicted can bring their cases back to court. our next question from the audience says, in santa clara county when people plead guilty to misdemeanors,

six years ago san francisco police bought some expensive dna equipment for the crime lab.ver since it's been sitting unused. ktvu's allie rasmuss is live with our report. >> reporter: well, frank, there are two dna testing machines that the crime lab owns and is not using. we have a picture of them to show you. this is called an abi prism 400. and now some people including the police commissioner want to know why the department bought this equipment six years ago and never used it. >> certainly when we purchased this equipment it was with the intent that when we had the opportunity that we would make that happen, that we would increase the efficiency of the people who worked out there. >> reporter: the equipment is supposed to let crime lab technicians test 16 dna samples at once. san francisco police wouldn't tell us how much it paid for the two machines. but an online report priced them at about $140,000 apiece. san francisco police commander denise schmidt says they bought the dna testing equipment six years ago with a federal grant. >> we qualified for and got the fund

six years ago san francisco police bought some expensive dna equipment for the crime lab. but ever since it's been sitting unused. ktvu's allie rasmuss is live with our report. >> reporter: well, frank, there are two dna testing machines that the crime lab owns and is not using. we have a picture of them to show you. this is called an abi prism 400. and now some people including the police commissioner want to know why the department bought this equipment six years ago and never used it. >> certainly when we purchased this equipment it was with the intent that when we had the opportunity that we would make that happen, that we would increase the efficiency of the people who worked out there. >> reporter: the equipment is supposed to let crime lab technicians test 16 dna samples at once. san francisco police wouldn't tell us how much it paid for the two machines. but an online report priced them at about $140,000 apiece. san francisco police commander denise schmidt says they bought the dna testing equipment six years ago with a federal grant. >> we qualified for and got th

. >> another black eye for san francisco's embattled crime lab. an official says a $140,000 machine that could be used to eliminate the last dna back dog sat idle for six years. tonight explaining why this isn't being used. >> there is two of them. found out this afternoon the police department had two of the very expensive machines... that had been sitting unused, and in the back corner in the dark since 2004. we've got a picture. this is what it looks like. there is two in 2004. the department unable to tell me if it's homeland security money but do admit for six years, the dna testers have been sitting unplugged and unused. >> what happened over last five years. but over the course of times, those world dz not line line up for us. >> commander couldn't tell me what it cost to get them up and running and what the manufactures cost initially or what other prm programs in this department took priority. but could tell me why we're not allowed into the lab to see machines. these pictures were taken, that is back in 2003. and the case that occupied t

this would have not occurred if the lab was independent. i question whether it would even have the courage to come up and openly say what went wrong. there are crimes going on around the country. this is a fast-moving industry.

. >>> another black eye for san francisco's embattled crime lab. a police official says $140,000 machine that could be used to help eliminate the lab's backlog has been idle since it was bought six years ago. it was never brought on line because they never dedicated the resources for tech support needed to operate it. the issue of untested dna and other problems at the lab came to light when a technician admitted stealing cocaine. >> daniel shore has died. he was on president nixon's notorious enemies list. his career of more than six decades spanned the spectrum of journalism. he reported from places all over the world as a foreign correspondent. >> ...berber carpet. it was a whole bowl of stew. nooo. why? i could have saved this one. i could have saved this one. ♪ call 1-800-steemer >> closed captioning brought to you by mancini sleepworld. >>> three of the hottest real estate markets in the country are in the east bay. according to zip realty. 94703 was the hottest in the nation. homes there were selling on average nearly 8% above asking price i

today, ceo steve jobs tried to deflect the criticism and allowed us into their secret lab. how serious is apple about quality control? bill weir has our report. >> we're introducing iphone 4. >> reporter: so, how can the most successful ceo in america go from this -- >> this is beyond a doubt the most precise thing, one of the most beautiful things we've ever made. >> reporter: to this -- >> we're not perfect. >> reporter: -- in just 39 days? well, it began with an antenna. a stainless steel case study in form versus function. >> this is part of some brilliant engineering, which actually uses the stainless steel band as part of the antenna system. >> reporter: more bells, whistles and battery life than any smart phone in history, there was no room to put the antenna inside, so apple put it on the outside of the iphone 4, knowing that the occasional sweaty palm might weaken the signal in certain areas. they could have covered it in plastic, but then it wouldn't have been the sexy device that makes people sleep on the street to buy one. apple sold six iphones a second. and th